D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
MUCH OF THE following was excerpted
from the article “Launch Count: 15,000
Drones, One Babe” by Stephen Joiner in
the April/May 2003 Air&Space and Web
site http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/
hargrave/denny.html.
What We Didn’t Know About Reginald
Denny: As is almost any modeler with an
interest in our hobby’s history, I was aware
of Reginald Denny’s important
contributions to the success of
aeromodeling in the 1930s. In the previous
two columns I have attempted to share
information about those model-airplane
contributions and his theatrical career.
But as I explored the Web site from
Monash University in Australia, I learned
that Reginald Denny is truly the father of
remotely piloted model airplanes!
From the beginnings of aerial combat,
antiaircraft gunners practiced
80 MODEL AVIATION
Reginald Denny with his early RP-1. Power plant is a Righter horizontally opposed twin
(ungeared). This drone bears a strong resemblance to the Denny Jr.
The production line at Radio Plane: a sophisticated massproduction
facility that grew out of a home workshop.
Unorthodox Righter twin’s gearboxes provided contrarotation of
two propellers. Can you imagine hand-cranking it?
marksmanship by shooting at target sleeves,
which were essentially large windsocks
towed behind airplanes. Such flying duty
was not highly prized, yet even though the
target was towed in a straight line, few hits
were ever recorded on the sleeve or tow
airplane.
The military thinkers doubted that
enemy aircraft would oblige with such
broad-sided targets. In 1935, Reginald
Denny heard an antiaircraft officer
complaining about the inadequacy of the
target sleeves. “I told him I saw no reason
why a target plane couldn’t be sent up by
radio control,” he later told a Los Angeles
Herald Express reporter. That was the
defining moment for the development of
what we refer to today as Remotely Piloted
Vehicles, or RPVs.
Reginald’s offhand remark was
visionary and well ahead of the
development curve. As far as can be
determined, at that time no one had made
repeatable radio-controlled flights—or at
least not to the point of being commercially
viable.
The AMA Nationals did not even have a
Radio Control event until 1937, and the few
successful flights then were essentially
controlled crashes. Clinton De Soto won
flying a radio-controlled (at least
occasionally) glider.
On the other hand, the Good brothers,
Chas. Siegfried, Chet Lanzo, Clinton De
Soto, Joe Raspante, Jim Walker, and a few
others could see the potential for
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:38 am Page 80
September 2004 81
commercial and military applications for
their pioneering radio-controlled model
activities. But they lacked the financial
backing of a movie star or the technical
resources of a large body of unemployed
technical people from the aircraft and
movie industry. As a result, their radiocontrol
developments were limited to single
models and the available commercial
engines.
Hobby Becomes Obsession: Reginald
converted his home workshop into a
remote-piloting lab. “My dad devoted most
of his time to the development of radio
control, and took acting jobs only to
support his family and the drone project,”
said his son Reg Denny.
With the help of several ham radio
operators and Walter Righter, who built the
two-cylinder engine, Reginald produced the
first radio-controlled miniature target drone
in 1936: the 9-foot-span RP-1. “RP” stood
for “Radio Plane.” (See photo.)
The RP-1 used toy train motors to move
the control surfaces and a rotary telephone
dial to encode signals in the RC
transmitter. Chas. Siegfried and Jim
Walker also used a phone dial for this
purpose, leading to the conclusion that
there must have been a flow of information
This young lady was working in the Radio Plane factory when a
twist of fate changed her life forever.
Albert Robinson restored this drone, which is on display at the
AMA museum. Open hatch is for recovery parachute release.
A restored OQ-2 drone before complete covering. Notice the stamped aluminum wing
ribs and two propellers on one shaft contrarotating via a gearbox.
The rail apparatus used to launch drones from a limited space
and without attempting to take off unassisted.
between these three pioneers. Chas.
Siegfried worked for the telephone
company here in Wichita, and I saw him, in
1948, dialing for control, albeit rather
sluggish and inconsistent.
These primitive technologies did not
produce acceptable results for several
years. Undeterred by numerous early
crashes, Reginald continued to finance
prototypes by playing movie roles opposite
such diverse talents as Greta Garbo and
Abbott and Costello. Thus his late-night
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:38 am Page 81
research and development continued on
Vine Street.
Finally—Predictability! Four years of hard
work and frustration later, in 1939 the
home-built servos were replaced with units
from Bendix, and a joystick replaced the
phone dial. When the 12-foot-span RP-4
finally auditioned for the military, its big
break almost became a disaster.
“Unbeknownst to the military that day,
the aircraft went completely out of control,”
wrote Reginald’s son. “The brass was
extremely impressed with the wild
aerobatics, while my father and his group
were terrified that the drone might dive into
the reviewing stands.”
The RP-4 spun into the ground, but
Reginald returned to Hollywood with a
government contract. The Army designated
the improved RP-5 the “OQ-2,” and the
Navy designated its drone the TDD-1, for
“Target Drone Denny.” The specifications
were a one-hour flight to 5,000 feet, and
then a parachute recovery with minimal
damage.
In June 1940, the Radio Plane
Corporation moved from the Denny
household to a Van Nuys, California,
factory. Nearly 15,000 Denny drones were
produced during World War II.
Reginald continued to refine the designs,
adding aileron control, larger engines, and
increasingly more-reliable radio equipment.
The last iteration was the long-lived KD-
2R5, which reached a production run of
more than 85,000, surpassing that of any
full-scale aircraft ever manufactured!
Yet by the nature of their intended use,
very few drones remain. That makes the
OQ-2a on display in the AMA museum in
Muncie, Indiana, a unique exhibit.
Construction and Power: Early versions of
the drones were constructed much like large
model airplanes; that is, they were built
mostly from wood and were covered with
lightweight muslin, which was sealed with
nitrate dope. As the series evolved, a welded
steel-tubing fuselage was combined with
stamped aluminum wing ribs and a welded
empennage.
The early series was powered by various
twin engines designed and manufactured by
Walter Righter, who had built the
Dennymite model-airplane engines for
Reginald. Some of these early twins were, to
put it mildly, “unusual,” as you can see in
the photo.
Those were later replaced by more
traditional horizontally opposed twins that
featured an updraft carburetor, a single
ignition, and, in some instances, gearboxes
that provided contrarotation of twin
propellers in an effort to counter torque.
Next month I will show you the
launching method used and the parachute
recovery system.
That Photo: In 1945, Sergeant David
Conover Sr. was a photographer assigned to
the 1st Motion Picture Unit stationed at
Universal Studios. In an effort to improve
the troops’ morale, this unit provided
newsreel footage of support on the home
front to be shown as part of the
informational (read: propaganda) movies for
the troops program.
The commander of this unit was a friend
of Reginald’s, and he sent David out to
Radio Plane to take some footage and stills
of the activities there. The commander was
Ronald Reagan.
David immediately noticed a photogenic
young lady doping OQ-3 panels and asked
her if she would pose for him. A 19-year-old
Norma Jean Dougherty reportedly asked,
“Am I really photogenic?” David thought
she was to the point where he arranged a test
and subsequent contract with a modeling
agency for her. Those first commercial
photos led to an extraordinary career for this
Radio Plane worker—particularly after she
went blonde and changed her name to
Marilyn Monroe.
When I saw the photo in Air&Space, I
contacted the editor, who referred me to
David Conover Sr.’s son, who runs a bedand-
breakfast on an island in the Frazier
River in British Columbia, Canada, near
Kamloops. You are looking at the first
commercial photo ever taken of Marilyn
Monroe! Who would have thought it
possible to use a photo of Marilyn in a
column about model airplanes? MA
82 MODEL AVIATION
Visit the MODEL AVIATION Digital Archives!
Featuring a searchable database of Model
Aviation issues and articles from 1975 to 2000.
This is by far one of the best
efforts AMA has made to
construct something that is for
every member.
—Marco Pinto
Peninsula Channel Commanders
San Francisco CA
“
”
Find it at www.modelaircraft.org. On the main page, click
on the “Members Only” section, and follow the directions
to access this great membership benefit!
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:39 am Page 82
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/09
Page Numbers: 80,81,82
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/09
Page Numbers: 80,81,82
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
MUCH OF THE following was excerpted
from the article “Launch Count: 15,000
Drones, One Babe” by Stephen Joiner in
the April/May 2003 Air&Space and Web
site http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/
hargrave/denny.html.
What We Didn’t Know About Reginald
Denny: As is almost any modeler with an
interest in our hobby’s history, I was aware
of Reginald Denny’s important
contributions to the success of
aeromodeling in the 1930s. In the previous
two columns I have attempted to share
information about those model-airplane
contributions and his theatrical career.
But as I explored the Web site from
Monash University in Australia, I learned
that Reginald Denny is truly the father of
remotely piloted model airplanes!
From the beginnings of aerial combat,
antiaircraft gunners practiced
80 MODEL AVIATION
Reginald Denny with his early RP-1. Power plant is a Righter horizontally opposed twin
(ungeared). This drone bears a strong resemblance to the Denny Jr.
The production line at Radio Plane: a sophisticated massproduction
facility that grew out of a home workshop.
Unorthodox Righter twin’s gearboxes provided contrarotation of
two propellers. Can you imagine hand-cranking it?
marksmanship by shooting at target sleeves,
which were essentially large windsocks
towed behind airplanes. Such flying duty
was not highly prized, yet even though the
target was towed in a straight line, few hits
were ever recorded on the sleeve or tow
airplane.
The military thinkers doubted that
enemy aircraft would oblige with such
broad-sided targets. In 1935, Reginald
Denny heard an antiaircraft officer
complaining about the inadequacy of the
target sleeves. “I told him I saw no reason
why a target plane couldn’t be sent up by
radio control,” he later told a Los Angeles
Herald Express reporter. That was the
defining moment for the development of
what we refer to today as Remotely Piloted
Vehicles, or RPVs.
Reginald’s offhand remark was
visionary and well ahead of the
development curve. As far as can be
determined, at that time no one had made
repeatable radio-controlled flights—or at
least not to the point of being commercially
viable.
The AMA Nationals did not even have a
Radio Control event until 1937, and the few
successful flights then were essentially
controlled crashes. Clinton De Soto won
flying a radio-controlled (at least
occasionally) glider.
On the other hand, the Good brothers,
Chas. Siegfried, Chet Lanzo, Clinton De
Soto, Joe Raspante, Jim Walker, and a few
others could see the potential for
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:38 am Page 80
September 2004 81
commercial and military applications for
their pioneering radio-controlled model
activities. But they lacked the financial
backing of a movie star or the technical
resources of a large body of unemployed
technical people from the aircraft and
movie industry. As a result, their radiocontrol
developments were limited to single
models and the available commercial
engines.
Hobby Becomes Obsession: Reginald
converted his home workshop into a
remote-piloting lab. “My dad devoted most
of his time to the development of radio
control, and took acting jobs only to
support his family and the drone project,”
said his son Reg Denny.
With the help of several ham radio
operators and Walter Righter, who built the
two-cylinder engine, Reginald produced the
first radio-controlled miniature target drone
in 1936: the 9-foot-span RP-1. “RP” stood
for “Radio Plane.” (See photo.)
The RP-1 used toy train motors to move
the control surfaces and a rotary telephone
dial to encode signals in the RC
transmitter. Chas. Siegfried and Jim
Walker also used a phone dial for this
purpose, leading to the conclusion that
there must have been a flow of information
This young lady was working in the Radio Plane factory when a
twist of fate changed her life forever.
Albert Robinson restored this drone, which is on display at the
AMA museum. Open hatch is for recovery parachute release.
A restored OQ-2 drone before complete covering. Notice the stamped aluminum wing
ribs and two propellers on one shaft contrarotating via a gearbox.
The rail apparatus used to launch drones from a limited space
and without attempting to take off unassisted.
between these three pioneers. Chas.
Siegfried worked for the telephone
company here in Wichita, and I saw him, in
1948, dialing for control, albeit rather
sluggish and inconsistent.
These primitive technologies did not
produce acceptable results for several
years. Undeterred by numerous early
crashes, Reginald continued to finance
prototypes by playing movie roles opposite
such diverse talents as Greta Garbo and
Abbott and Costello. Thus his late-night
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:38 am Page 81
research and development continued on
Vine Street.
Finally—Predictability! Four years of hard
work and frustration later, in 1939 the
home-built servos were replaced with units
from Bendix, and a joystick replaced the
phone dial. When the 12-foot-span RP-4
finally auditioned for the military, its big
break almost became a disaster.
“Unbeknownst to the military that day,
the aircraft went completely out of control,”
wrote Reginald’s son. “The brass was
extremely impressed with the wild
aerobatics, while my father and his group
were terrified that the drone might dive into
the reviewing stands.”
The RP-4 spun into the ground, but
Reginald returned to Hollywood with a
government contract. The Army designated
the improved RP-5 the “OQ-2,” and the
Navy designated its drone the TDD-1, for
“Target Drone Denny.” The specifications
were a one-hour flight to 5,000 feet, and
then a parachute recovery with minimal
damage.
In June 1940, the Radio Plane
Corporation moved from the Denny
household to a Van Nuys, California,
factory. Nearly 15,000 Denny drones were
produced during World War II.
Reginald continued to refine the designs,
adding aileron control, larger engines, and
increasingly more-reliable radio equipment.
The last iteration was the long-lived KD-
2R5, which reached a production run of
more than 85,000, surpassing that of any
full-scale aircraft ever manufactured!
Yet by the nature of their intended use,
very few drones remain. That makes the
OQ-2a on display in the AMA museum in
Muncie, Indiana, a unique exhibit.
Construction and Power: Early versions of
the drones were constructed much like large
model airplanes; that is, they were built
mostly from wood and were covered with
lightweight muslin, which was sealed with
nitrate dope. As the series evolved, a welded
steel-tubing fuselage was combined with
stamped aluminum wing ribs and a welded
empennage.
The early series was powered by various
twin engines designed and manufactured by
Walter Righter, who had built the
Dennymite model-airplane engines for
Reginald. Some of these early twins were, to
put it mildly, “unusual,” as you can see in
the photo.
Those were later replaced by more
traditional horizontally opposed twins that
featured an updraft carburetor, a single
ignition, and, in some instances, gearboxes
that provided contrarotation of twin
propellers in an effort to counter torque.
Next month I will show you the
launching method used and the parachute
recovery system.
That Photo: In 1945, Sergeant David
Conover Sr. was a photographer assigned to
the 1st Motion Picture Unit stationed at
Universal Studios. In an effort to improve
the troops’ morale, this unit provided
newsreel footage of support on the home
front to be shown as part of the
informational (read: propaganda) movies for
the troops program.
The commander of this unit was a friend
of Reginald’s, and he sent David out to
Radio Plane to take some footage and stills
of the activities there. The commander was
Ronald Reagan.
David immediately noticed a photogenic
young lady doping OQ-3 panels and asked
her if she would pose for him. A 19-year-old
Norma Jean Dougherty reportedly asked,
“Am I really photogenic?” David thought
she was to the point where he arranged a test
and subsequent contract with a modeling
agency for her. Those first commercial
photos led to an extraordinary career for this
Radio Plane worker—particularly after she
went blonde and changed her name to
Marilyn Monroe.
When I saw the photo in Air&Space, I
contacted the editor, who referred me to
David Conover Sr.’s son, who runs a bedand-
breakfast on an island in the Frazier
River in British Columbia, Canada, near
Kamloops. You are looking at the first
commercial photo ever taken of Marilyn
Monroe! Who would have thought it
possible to use a photo of Marilyn in a
column about model airplanes? MA
82 MODEL AVIATION
Visit the MODEL AVIATION Digital Archives!
Featuring a searchable database of Model
Aviation issues and articles from 1975 to 2000.
This is by far one of the best
efforts AMA has made to
construct something that is for
every member.
—Marco Pinto
Peninsula Channel Commanders
San Francisco CA
“
”
Find it at www.modelaircraft.org. On the main page, click
on the “Members Only” section, and follow the directions
to access this great membership benefit!
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:39 am Page 82
Edition: Model Aviation - 2004/09
Page Numbers: 80,81,82
D.B. Mathews
F l y i n g f o r F u n
909 N. Maize Rd., Townhouse 734, Wichita KS 67212
MUCH OF THE following was excerpted
from the article “Launch Count: 15,000
Drones, One Babe” by Stephen Joiner in
the April/May 2003 Air&Space and Web
site http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/
hargrave/denny.html.
What We Didn’t Know About Reginald
Denny: As is almost any modeler with an
interest in our hobby’s history, I was aware
of Reginald Denny’s important
contributions to the success of
aeromodeling in the 1930s. In the previous
two columns I have attempted to share
information about those model-airplane
contributions and his theatrical career.
But as I explored the Web site from
Monash University in Australia, I learned
that Reginald Denny is truly the father of
remotely piloted model airplanes!
From the beginnings of aerial combat,
antiaircraft gunners practiced
80 MODEL AVIATION
Reginald Denny with his early RP-1. Power plant is a Righter horizontally opposed twin
(ungeared). This drone bears a strong resemblance to the Denny Jr.
The production line at Radio Plane: a sophisticated massproduction
facility that grew out of a home workshop.
Unorthodox Righter twin’s gearboxes provided contrarotation of
two propellers. Can you imagine hand-cranking it?
marksmanship by shooting at target sleeves,
which were essentially large windsocks
towed behind airplanes. Such flying duty
was not highly prized, yet even though the
target was towed in a straight line, few hits
were ever recorded on the sleeve or tow
airplane.
The military thinkers doubted that
enemy aircraft would oblige with such
broad-sided targets. In 1935, Reginald
Denny heard an antiaircraft officer
complaining about the inadequacy of the
target sleeves. “I told him I saw no reason
why a target plane couldn’t be sent up by
radio control,” he later told a Los Angeles
Herald Express reporter. That was the
defining moment for the development of
what we refer to today as Remotely Piloted
Vehicles, or RPVs.
Reginald’s offhand remark was
visionary and well ahead of the
development curve. As far as can be
determined, at that time no one had made
repeatable radio-controlled flights—or at
least not to the point of being commercially
viable.
The AMA Nationals did not even have a
Radio Control event until 1937, and the few
successful flights then were essentially
controlled crashes. Clinton De Soto won
flying a radio-controlled (at least
occasionally) glider.
On the other hand, the Good brothers,
Chas. Siegfried, Chet Lanzo, Clinton De
Soto, Joe Raspante, Jim Walker, and a few
others could see the potential for
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:38 am Page 80
September 2004 81
commercial and military applications for
their pioneering radio-controlled model
activities. But they lacked the financial
backing of a movie star or the technical
resources of a large body of unemployed
technical people from the aircraft and
movie industry. As a result, their radiocontrol
developments were limited to single
models and the available commercial
engines.
Hobby Becomes Obsession: Reginald
converted his home workshop into a
remote-piloting lab. “My dad devoted most
of his time to the development of radio
control, and took acting jobs only to
support his family and the drone project,”
said his son Reg Denny.
With the help of several ham radio
operators and Walter Righter, who built the
two-cylinder engine, Reginald produced the
first radio-controlled miniature target drone
in 1936: the 9-foot-span RP-1. “RP” stood
for “Radio Plane.” (See photo.)
The RP-1 used toy train motors to move
the control surfaces and a rotary telephone
dial to encode signals in the RC
transmitter. Chas. Siegfried and Jim
Walker also used a phone dial for this
purpose, leading to the conclusion that
there must have been a flow of information
This young lady was working in the Radio Plane factory when a
twist of fate changed her life forever.
Albert Robinson restored this drone, which is on display at the
AMA museum. Open hatch is for recovery parachute release.
A restored OQ-2 drone before complete covering. Notice the stamped aluminum wing
ribs and two propellers on one shaft contrarotating via a gearbox.
The rail apparatus used to launch drones from a limited space
and without attempting to take off unassisted.
between these three pioneers. Chas.
Siegfried worked for the telephone
company here in Wichita, and I saw him, in
1948, dialing for control, albeit rather
sluggish and inconsistent.
These primitive technologies did not
produce acceptable results for several
years. Undeterred by numerous early
crashes, Reginald continued to finance
prototypes by playing movie roles opposite
such diverse talents as Greta Garbo and
Abbott and Costello. Thus his late-night
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:38 am Page 81
research and development continued on
Vine Street.
Finally—Predictability! Four years of hard
work and frustration later, in 1939 the
home-built servos were replaced with units
from Bendix, and a joystick replaced the
phone dial. When the 12-foot-span RP-4
finally auditioned for the military, its big
break almost became a disaster.
“Unbeknownst to the military that day,
the aircraft went completely out of control,”
wrote Reginald’s son. “The brass was
extremely impressed with the wild
aerobatics, while my father and his group
were terrified that the drone might dive into
the reviewing stands.”
The RP-4 spun into the ground, but
Reginald returned to Hollywood with a
government contract. The Army designated
the improved RP-5 the “OQ-2,” and the
Navy designated its drone the TDD-1, for
“Target Drone Denny.” The specifications
were a one-hour flight to 5,000 feet, and
then a parachute recovery with minimal
damage.
In June 1940, the Radio Plane
Corporation moved from the Denny
household to a Van Nuys, California,
factory. Nearly 15,000 Denny drones were
produced during World War II.
Reginald continued to refine the designs,
adding aileron control, larger engines, and
increasingly more-reliable radio equipment.
The last iteration was the long-lived KD-
2R5, which reached a production run of
more than 85,000, surpassing that of any
full-scale aircraft ever manufactured!
Yet by the nature of their intended use,
very few drones remain. That makes the
OQ-2a on display in the AMA museum in
Muncie, Indiana, a unique exhibit.
Construction and Power: Early versions of
the drones were constructed much like large
model airplanes; that is, they were built
mostly from wood and were covered with
lightweight muslin, which was sealed with
nitrate dope. As the series evolved, a welded
steel-tubing fuselage was combined with
stamped aluminum wing ribs and a welded
empennage.
The early series was powered by various
twin engines designed and manufactured by
Walter Righter, who had built the
Dennymite model-airplane engines for
Reginald. Some of these early twins were, to
put it mildly, “unusual,” as you can see in
the photo.
Those were later replaced by more
traditional horizontally opposed twins that
featured an updraft carburetor, a single
ignition, and, in some instances, gearboxes
that provided contrarotation of twin
propellers in an effort to counter torque.
Next month I will show you the
launching method used and the parachute
recovery system.
That Photo: In 1945, Sergeant David
Conover Sr. was a photographer assigned to
the 1st Motion Picture Unit stationed at
Universal Studios. In an effort to improve
the troops’ morale, this unit provided
newsreel footage of support on the home
front to be shown as part of the
informational (read: propaganda) movies for
the troops program.
The commander of this unit was a friend
of Reginald’s, and he sent David out to
Radio Plane to take some footage and stills
of the activities there. The commander was
Ronald Reagan.
David immediately noticed a photogenic
young lady doping OQ-3 panels and asked
her if she would pose for him. A 19-year-old
Norma Jean Dougherty reportedly asked,
“Am I really photogenic?” David thought
she was to the point where he arranged a test
and subsequent contract with a modeling
agency for her. Those first commercial
photos led to an extraordinary career for this
Radio Plane worker—particularly after she
went blonde and changed her name to
Marilyn Monroe.
When I saw the photo in Air&Space, I
contacted the editor, who referred me to
David Conover Sr.’s son, who runs a bedand-
breakfast on an island in the Frazier
River in British Columbia, Canada, near
Kamloops. You are looking at the first
commercial photo ever taken of Marilyn
Monroe! Who would have thought it
possible to use a photo of Marilyn in a
column about model airplanes? MA
82 MODEL AVIATION
Visit the MODEL AVIATION Digital Archives!
Featuring a searchable database of Model
Aviation issues and articles from 1975 to 2000.
This is by far one of the best
efforts AMA has made to
construct something that is for
every member.
—Marco Pinto
Peninsula Channel Commanders
San Francisco CA
“
”
Find it at www.modelaircraft.org. On the main page, click
on the “Members Only” section, and follow the directions
to access this great membership benefit!
09sig3QXD 6/24/04 8:39 am Page 82