DeKalb's "Secret Airplane"-- Part 2: A Joint Operation Between Wurlitzer and Interstate

The Wurlitzer plant made the parts of the mostly wooden plane/drone while Interstate workers in the factory next door put the aircraft together.  Today, that building is owned by General Electric (as of 2011).  You can still see the large hangar doors today from Peace Road.

Since the project was classified top secret, the 1,400 employees who worked on it believed they were producing a trainer plane or target drone.  They did not know that the planes were designed to carry a 2000-pound bomb to its target while being remotely controlled by a nearby mother plane.

According to Roger Keys, "It was actually known as the first guided missile ever built.  During a two-year period, there were 189 of these planes/drones built in DeKalb.

They were delivered to a remote island base in the South Pacific where they were readied for missions against Japanese targets.  Kind of like a kamikaze with out a live human guidance system.  I saw a picture of an escort aircraft carrier with its deck covered in the drones as they was on their way to be delivered.

--GreGen