Reginald Denny, the actor and radio-controlled model airplane enthusiast, saw an opportunity, which in a twist would jumpstart the career of future Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe.
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In 1935, Denny and two other men started work on a series of drones that would give the Army something unmanned to practice shooting out of the sky. It turned into a decades-long relationship and business for the company they founded, Radioplane.
They started with an initial design that fell short of the Army’s requirements, so Radioplane made continuous improvements to win a contract. The successful Radioplane RP-5 design was accepted by the Army and designated as the OQ-2A. Almost 1,000 of the drones were produced – and resulted in a long history of drone models and designs by Radioplane.
Radioplane continued to improve its designs through World War II and manufactured more than 14,000 drones for the War Department by the end of 1945.
But drones are not the only thing to come out of the Radioplane factory. Employee Norma Jeane Dougherty was featured on the cover of the U.S. Army’s YANK magazine on June 26, 1945, working on a Radioplane OQ-3. After the magazine was published, Dougherty shot a screen test for Hollywood producers and soon became American icon Marilyn Monroe.
Radioplane drones can be found at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The OQ-2A in the World War II gallery and the OQ-19D in the Cold War gallery.
Unfortunately, Marilyn Monroe is not there to show them off.
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