Forgotten Survivor

The Culver PQ-14 Cadet Target Drone.

- Frank B. Mormillo

Unknown to all but the most dedicated of warbird enthusiasts, the Culver PQ-14 is certainly one of the forgotten military aircraft of World War II. Although it never faced the Axis forces in combat, the PQ-14 did play an important role in the victory over those enemy forces. The PQ-14 was a target drone that helped to train U.S. antiaircraft gunners in the fine art of their trade.

When it comes to unmanned aerial vehicles, many think of drones as a 21st-century innovation. Unmanned aircraft, however, actually date back to World War I, when experiments were conducted with unmanned flying bombs and aerial torpedoes. While little actually came of those early experiments, Britain actually began to produce unmanned aerial targets in 1935 by modifying the basic de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane trainer into the DH.82B Queen Bee target drone.

In the United States, the unmanned aerial target drone actually got its serious start when expatriate British movie star Reginald Denny began experimenting with radio-controlled model airplanes. Together with Paul Whittier and with funding from Whitney Collins, Denny (even though making movies) formed the Radioplane Company in Van Nuys, California, in 1939 to develop the RP-3 radio-controlled aerial target, which morphed into the RP-5/0Q-2. WW II saw about 15,000 RP-5s built.