Interstate TDR-1 Drones-- Part 4: Testing and the Yamasuki Maru

The code name for the project was Operation Option and the U.S. Navy had plans for up to eighteen squadrons of the drones with 162 Grummans TBF Avengers as control aircraft and  1000 flying TDR-1 drones.

However, there were technical difficulties with their operation and unfortunately, low priority given to the project.  The contract was modified and the order reduced to just 300 of the aircraft.  A single TDR-1 was tested  bu the U.S. Army Air Force as the XBQ-4, however no extra production orders were received.

In 1944, under control of the Special Air Task Force (SATFOR), the TDR-1 was deployed operationally in the Pacific for operations against the Japanese.  Additional testing was done by SATFOR in July, complete with a strike against a previously beached Japanese freighter named the Yumasuki Maru  (Yamasuki Maru), including management of the flight from seven miles away by TBM Avenger aircraft, which could monitor the progress from the TDR's  via early television technology.

--GreGen