# " TESTS OF RADIO CONTROLLED PLANES " U.S. NAVY WWII UAV PROGRAM TDN-1 TORPEDO DRONE 30792

This WWII film, which has sound by the way only it's incredibly low, shows the U.S. Navy's experimental WWII weapon the TDN-1 drone. Built by the Naval Aircraft Factory, the TDN was an early unmanned combat aerial vehicle - referred to at the time as an "assault drone" - developed by the United States Navy's Naval Aircraft Factory during the Second World War. Developed and tested during 1942 and 1943, the design featured a television camera in the nose and could be flown by remote control by pilots aboard chase aircraft. The TDN-1 proved moderately successful, but it was expensive to build. A successor aircraft that could be built cheaply, the Interstate TDR-1, was eventually built and flown in combat against Japanese targets in the Pacific in 1944. The TDN-1 was relegated to second-line duties, and none were used in operational service. One hundred production TDN-1 aircraft were ordered in March 1942. Despite being specifically designed to be a simple, low-performance aircraft, and despite proving promising in testing, the type was considered to be too complicated and expensive for use operationally. The improved Interstate TDR was selected for development as an alternative, the majority of TDN-1s being used in the test, liaison and training roles, with some being expended as aerial targets. The TDN-1 is often credited as the first US drone to take off from an aircraft carrier freely -- in this case the "Great Lakes Carrier" USS Sable. An Airspeed Queen Wasp had already…

- Kind: Film
- By: PeriscopeFilm
- Genres: War, Industrial and advertising
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/30792tdndroneradiocontrolledplanes)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/30792tdndroneradiocontrolledplanes?play=1)