One of the first drones were the BQ-7’s and BQ-8’s. Known as Project Aphrodite, worn out B-17’s and B-24’s were stripped of gear and packed with 20,000 lbs of Torpex and crashed into high value targets (sub pens, etc) Although the planes could be guided remotely, they had to have pilots aboard for the takeoff who would then arm the system and bailout. It was one of these that prematurely exploded in August 1944, killing Lt Joseph P Kennedy Jr USNR (President Kennedy’s older brother) who volunteered as the first Navy pilot in this Army Air Corps mission despite already having completed enough missions to return stateside. (BQ-8’s were the B-24 version)
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This top secret World War II drone mission killed JFK's older brother
One of the pilots killed in the virtually unknown Operation Aphrodite was the older brother of future-President John F. Kennedy.
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