PILOTLESS PLANE ESCAPES

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28050, 18 August 1956, Page 11

PILOTLESS PLANE ESCAPES

70-Mile Flight Over California (Rec. 11 p.m.) PALMDALE (California), Aug. 16 A pilotless drone plane crashed in a shower of rockets today after it oroke loose from radio control and dew 70 miles. Shrapnel from the escaping rocket.broke a window in a home at Palmdale and nearly demolished a car The driver. Mr Larry Kempton, escaped uninjured. Some shrapnel also struck the Yucca School, sheriff’s deputies said, but noone was injured.

The drone plane was an F6F Hellcat, used at the Point Mugu Navy testing centre on the coast as a targei plane. It took off just before noon, but immediately lost radio control. The plane climbed to 30,000 feet and circled inland, passing over the coastal mountain range, and headed towards the desert community of Palmdale. 70 miles north of Los Angeles. r M Na . vy plane from Point Mugu followed the drone, keeping it in its radar scope at all times, the Navy reported.

Two Ait Force Scorpion fighters were dispatched from the Palmdale test centre to help intercept the plane it headed towards inhabited areas. The Air Force said the planes mad? three firing passes at the drone and fired more than 200 rockets. A spokesman warned residents of the area to leave untouched any unexploded rockets they might find in the area Demolition crews sped to the scene to collect and disarm unexploded rockets. In spite of the firing, the Air Force said, the drone probably was not shot down, out crashed from lack of fuel