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From Flight Magazine (16 January 1964)
First flight of "the Free World's first autogyro drone aircraft" was announced by Northrop Corporation from the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range on January 6. Designed and built at Newbury Park, California, by Northrop's Ventura Division to meet the US Services needs for a low-cost, multi-purpose, remote-controlled vertical-take-off drone, the aircraft is designated the NV-101. It is designed to fly battlefield reconnaissance missions at speeds up to 140 m.p.h. and heights up to 20,000ft with a flight duration exceeding one hour; simulate a helicopter or low-flying aircraft for gunnery and rocket target practice; and deliver 3001b of supplies to frontline troops in jungle or rough mountain terrain.
Powered by a 75 h.p. McCulloch engine, the drone is equipped with three 12ft variable-pitch rotor blades in place of the standard fixed wing. At the start of a flight the blades are accelerated to 450 r.p.m. by compressed air or a small propellant charge. Northrop Ventura has supplied more than 65,000 radio-controlled unmanned aircraft to US and allied forces, including KD2R-5 target drones for the Royal Navy and SD-1 reconnaissance drones for the Royal Artillery. UK representatives for Northrop Ventura are Aerial Targets Ltd of 27 Ashley Place, Westminster, London SW1 (Tate Gallery 8631).
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First flight of "the Free World's first autogyro drone aircraft" was announced by Northrop Corporation from the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range on January 6. Designed and built at Newbury Park, California, by Northrop's Ventura Division to meet the US Services needs for a low-cost, multi-purpose, remote-controlled vertical-take-off drone, the aircraft is designated the NV-101. It is designed to fly battlefield reconnaissance missions at speeds up to 140 m.p.h. and heights up to 20,000ft with a flight duration exceeding one hour; simulate a helicopter or low-flying aircraft for gunnery and rocket target practice; and deliver 3001b of supplies to frontline troops in jungle or rough mountain terrain.
Powered by a 75 h.p. McCulloch engine, the drone is equipped with three 12ft variable-pitch rotor blades in place of the standard fixed wing. At the start of a flight the blades are accelerated to 450 r.p.m. by compressed air or a small propellant charge. Northrop Ventura has supplied more than 65,000 radio-controlled unmanned aircraft to US and allied forces, including KD2R-5 target drones for the Royal Navy and SD-1 reconnaissance drones for the Royal Artillery. UK representatives for Northrop Ventura are Aerial Targets Ltd of 27 Ashley Place, Westminster, London SW1 (Tate Gallery 8631).
Notes:
- The NV-101 was a development of the MQM-/AQM-57 Falconer target drone series.
- The designation "NV-101" indicates the Northrop Ventura division, formerly known as the Radioplane division. Ventura continued the same numbering system started by Radioplane in the 1930s, even before they became part of Northrop.
- I once had a rare color picture of this rare bird and all the specs, straight from an eBay sale from circa 2003. It disappeared with a lot of data when my previous computer crashed... Does anyone have more than what's below? If so I'd love to see them!
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