Oh wow! That's in great shape. That should really be in a museum.

Call or contact Jay Wisler, here is a link to his website. I know he has one drone.
Denny

http://www.warbird-parts.com/

It would be nice if someone could generate a set of drawings. We could build up clones at various scale . I would be willing to pay for drawings. I would love to buy this one . If it is sold, eBay is the place. I am betting $1k would be a low ball figure. Could easily fetch better than twice that.

Very nice ! Looks amazingly similar to Dags Emmaselle 196" vintage elec plane in the giant elec forum here in RCG

Call the Eaa, they can put you in contact with a collector.Some one want's that.

Tiger that is an amazing piece of history there. Any chance you may be able to get some measurements, so that maybe we could draw some plans for a smaller version?
Thanks for sharing this with us.

EDIT: Found this 3 view of the drone. If anybody is looking for it.

I see on the OQ-14/TDD-3 motor they mentioned designed by Righter/Kiekhaufer. I wonder if it's the same Kiekhaufer that built the Mercury outboard motor.

Gord.

Their is a good side and a bad side for odd-ball and rare items like this.

Rare typically means it will be worth Allot..

Rare also means that it is Hard to put a value on it.

Unfortunately, I feel this drone is a victim of both of those, and it will only bring in as much as a buyer is willing to pay for it. And i doubt their are allot of people looking for WWII drones. Its large, bulky and will be hard to display in a conventional collectors collection.

Personally, I think it would better serve what the owner wants out of it (stay together and be cherished) if it were to go to a museum so thousands of people and multiple generations would be able to see it. These places would also be better apt to saying what it is realistically worth, and it is tax deductible as a donation.

ebay is not the move for this item at all
recently one of these engines sold for 175$ on ebay
any decent collector of militeria would hand over large sums of money for that especialy with serial plates, an original jim walker prop (saw one on ebay last month) and a new cover job

i know of a dealer in Florida who would die for that in his auction

Obiviously the guy is short on money where else would he sell it quickly ??

Rob sent you an e-mail. Check your Yahoo account. I want to come see this and have a museum that would love to have it.

There's a amazing story that goes with these planes.

Reginald Denny's previous versions, the (Radio Plane) RP1 to RP3 failed to win contracts after crashing on their demo flights in 1939.
Late in 1939 a new backer was found (Whitney Collins and Harold Powell) and together with Denny The "Radio Plane Company" was formed.
A successful demonstration to the Army of RP4 got a big contract and the RP4 became known as the 0Q-1.
The 0Q-1 evolved through to the 0Q-17 (company designated as RP18)
By this stage the US navy was also buying them for target drone practice by anti aircraft gunners during WW2, under the designation TDD (Target drone Denny) -1, -2, -3 etc. for $600 a pop.
15374 copies of the RP4 thru RP18 series were made.

Reginald Denny contacted his friend US Army Air Force Captain Ronald Reagan about filming Radio Planes' involvement in the war effort. Reagan's unit, the first motion picture company, dispatched one of its photographers (Private David Conover) to take pictures for "Yank" Magazine on 26 June 1945.
One of the girls on the assembly line caught his eye, enough for him to return later and take some more photos and distribute them to his movie studio connections.
That girl was Norma Jean Dougherty. After a bit of encouragement she left Radio Plane, started modelling, got into film and changed to her screen name Marilyn Monroe.
Marilyn Monroe was discovered on an UAV assembly line - who would have thought.
The 0Q-19 (RP-19) became the standard model and between 1946 and 1984 48,000 models were produced, later known by its Army designation, the MQM-33.
Northrop aircraft company acquired Radio Planes in 1952, and in 1953 Whit Collins became president of Northrop itself.
Radio Planes became 'The Ventura Division' of Northrop in 1962 and is still part of the present day Northrop Grumman Corp.
In 1999 Northrop Grumman acquired Teledyne Aeronautical (RadioPlanes chief competitor from the 1950s onward) bringing together the two leaders in post WW2 American unmanned aviation development.

In 1955 it modified its 0Q-19 (RP-71) Shelduck target drone to carry film cameras. Seeing service in the Army designated the AN/USD-1 Observer.
The Army bought 1445 of them, and in 1961 the British Army also bought 32 of them. It was also manufactured under license in Italy.

RadioPlane sold the design to a Belgium company who developed it into the SparrowHawk through to 1976.

Reginald Denny retired fom UAVs when the company was sold to Northrop in 1952 to continue with his love of acting, he appeared in over 30 movies, a supporting role in the 1966 version of 'Batman' was his last.
He died in England on 16 June 1967.

Quoted in part from "A Brief History of Unamanned Aviation" By Laurence Newcombe ISBN 1 84415 201 4

Originally Posted by beladog

Oh wow! That's in great shape. That should really be in a museum.

There appears to be one in the USAF Museum. In this interactive display thingy, go to the World War ll exhibit and click on the 3rd dot from the top, on the right. You can zoom in using the scroll wheel and notice that it looks to even have the counterrotating props, viewed end-on.
http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/full/tour-pkg.html

Oh please please please please don't sell it on eBay or similar! If there are only 7 left out of the 15'000 made, it's really obvious that this piece of history belongs into a museum! Best thing would be If you, providing the museum pays the transport, donated this drone. Yesterday we lost another wonderful beloved vintage airplane (Big Beautiful Doll ), it just wouldn't be right if this drone gets lost somewhere or gets into the wrong hands.

Oshkosh is coming up...I agree the EAA is your best bet...