The idea of using unmanned aircraft for military purposes has been around for centuries. The first actual attack may have come in 1849, when Austria launched 200 incendiary balloons in the direction of Venice, though the assault was ineffective because the wind blew all but one of those balloons off course.
In the early 20th century, not long after the Wright Brothers’ first flight in 1903, the race to develop unmanned aircraft stepped into high gear. It was fitting that when the U.S. military demonstrated its technologies for the first time to LIFE readers, it did so at Wright Field in Ohio.
The military pulled the wraps off two experimental models of “robot planes,” as they were then termed, for a story in LIFE’s issue of Oct. 15, 1945. The story, featuring photos by Sam Shere, said that the military had been working on unmanned military aircraft “for more than 20 years.”
Here’s how LIFE described those early models:
The robot plane is flown by a man on the ground or by a pilot on another plane which accompanies it in flight. The remote-control operator holds a radio control box, moves the pencil-like stick to transmit signals over a frequency-modulated wave to a radio receiver in the plane. These signals activate a Servo unit, nicknamed “the muscle,” which transforms electrical impressions into mechanical action and moves the airplane’s controls.
The story said that the robot planes needed to be operated by someone who was within four miles. Consider that a first step toward today’s technology, where drones have a range of hundreds of miles. Today the U.S. Department of Defense says that is has more than 11,000 military drones in its fleet.
The LIFE story concluded with a turn toward consumer uses of this technology and said, “Not inconceivable for the future is an awesome peacetime application which may make possible radio-controlled, wireless airliners.” While computers do aid in 21st century air travel, human pilots remain essential figures.
A soldier demonstrated an experimental “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A soldier demonstrated the experimental “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The remote control unit used for the “robot planes” the U.S. military demonstrated to LIFE magazine in 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
One of the U.S. military’s robot planes in development in 1945 needed to be controlled by a manned plane that was flying nearby.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A soldier at Wright Field in Ohio demonstrated an experimental “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
An experimental robot plane about to take off was being guided by a person in the plane behind it, 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A soldier demonstrated a radio-controlled “robot plane” that the U.S. military was developing, 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
In the foreground is a “robot plane” being developed by the U.S. military that could be controlled from its ‘mother plane,” 1945.
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A demonstration of a “robot plane” being developed by the U.S. military, 1945
Sam Shere/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock
