at the Naval Air Station, Atlantic City, New Jersey, on 26 January 1916,
it had 30 drone F6F=-3Ks and 26 drone control F6éF5s,
.
On 7 March 1916,
the unit boarded the aircraft carrier. Shangri-La, at Norfolk, Virginia,
and arrived at San Diego, California, on 1 April 1946, for training at
Brown Field, Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Chula Vista, California,-’
When the Shangri-La sailed from San Diego, the Navy Drone Unit had four
POF drones modified to collect samples,
In the Marshall Islands, the
drone aircraft landed on Roi Island, base of operations,
While waiting
for ABLE, the Navy drones accomplished 139 takeoffs from the decks of the
Shangri-La, with 110 catapult launchings.
The unit also accomplished 87
drone landings on the carrier deék, 2°
On shot day, the Navy Drone Unit had its airplanes in the air on
station,
A few minutes before detonation, one of the four F6F drones
(
suddenly went out of control, dived away from its mother ship, and crashed
into the sea,
The other three drones went through the cloud and retumed
safely to Roi Island where the Manhattan Project personnel removed the
samples,
For BAKER Shot, the drones carried cameras.
shots, the Shangri-La launched drones 193 times,
the Navy's training program.
In the 2h days between
Only one accident marred
During a routine training flight from Roi
Island on 9 Jaly, a Navy drone with a safety pilot aboard, suddenly rolled
at very low altitude and dived into the sea,
were lost.
Poth the airplane and pilot
Otherwise, BAKER operations went off without incident, the
drones passed through the cloud, then landed on Roi Island where the
12
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nes