Folks
Elio Addict
The forgotten battle that almost took out a section of Los Angeles.
*Old history of PT. Mugu 1956. The battle of Palmdale.*August 16, 1956,
Palmdale California
At Point Mugu Naval air station, ground crews prepped an F6F-5K Hellcat
drone for it’s last flight ever. The Hellcat was painted high-visibility
red and was rigged to be guided by remote control. The plane was to fly out
over the vast pacific into a training scenario where the navy would blast
it out of the sky for target practice. But the Hellcat had other ideas.
Shortly after 11:30 A.M. the Hellcat drone took off from the navy base
heading west over the ocean. Soon thereafter it started a lazy turn to the
south and began heading straight towards the teeming metropolis of Los
Angeles. The remote controllers at the navy base tried frantically to turn
the escaped plane back out to the ocean to no avail. Having lost contact it
proceeded to head straight into the heart of one of the most populated
areas in the country. When all backup systems failed, the Navy finally gave
up and called for assistance. As the Navy had no fighter aircraft standing
by, they swallowed their pride and made a call to Oxnard Air Force Base.
Five miles north of the navy base were two F-89D Scorpion interceptor jets
ready to scramble. Being that this was in the thick of the cold war era,
the planes were armed and fueled and ready to go. The Scorpions were armed
with two rocket pods containing 52 Mighty Mouse rockets. These rockets were
designed to be fired into approaching Russian bomber formations and thus
had no guidance systems. However, today, this was an altogether different
threat. 1st Lt. Hans Einstein and his radar op 1st Lt. C. D. Murray
sprinted across the tarmac and climbed into their waiting silver steed. 1st
Lt. Richard Hurliman and 1st Lt Walter Hale jumped into the second plane
and joined the pursuit.
The Air Force planes raced southward at full speed to intercept the small
wandering blip on their radar. At 30,000 feet just north of Los Angeles the
sprinting jets intercepted the portly drone. It was on a southwest course
that took it directly over Los Angeles, then it turned slowly circling over
the city of Santa Paula. The pilots were waiting for it to wander away from
populated areas so they could blast it from the sky.
Soon the red Hellcat drifted over a rural area known as Antelope Valley.
The pilots tried to fire their rockets with a turning fire-fire control
method, but a malfunction in the system prevented the rockets from
igniting. The drone then turned southeast and began heading back for the
center of Los Angeles. Under pressure, the pilots decided it was now or
never. They abandoned the automatic fire modes on the rockets and decided
to launch them manually. One snag was that the gun sights had recently been
removed from the planes! The theory was that they shouldn’t ever have to
use them because the automated firing system would target the rockets, but
it had failed.
The pilots decided to fly by the seat of their pants and began their first
rocket run. They set their intervalometers to “ripple fire,” which would
strafe the plane with three rocket salvos. The first plane lined up and let
loose… and missed completely. The second plane’s rockets undershot the
fleeing drone.
The rockets blasted past the mindless drone, overshooting their target.
They then descended into the mountains near the town of Castaic and
exploded in the forest below. They started a raging forest fire that would
destroy 150 acres in an area known as Bouquet Canyon.
The second salvo of rockets also missed the drone, blasting into the town
of Newhall. These rockets started fires in an oil field. They ignited a
number of oil sumps and began a fire that burned more than 100 acres of
brush. These fires blazed out of control and almost reached the Bermite
Powder company’s explosives plant!
The drone continued to drift northward toward the town of Palmdale.
Frustrated, the pilots tried another rocket run. The first salvo went wide
again. From the second salvo, a few Mighty Mouse rockets bounced
harmlessly off the slow moving drone's belly.
Suddenly in the quiet bucolic town of Palmdale, all hell broke loose.
Mighty Mouse rockets fell from the sky like fiery hail. An explosion
outside Edna Carlson’s house caused shrapnel to smash her front window,
blast through a wall, and wreck her pantry. Mrs Lilly Willingham heard a
deafening explosion and nearly missed being maimed by a hot piece of metal
that lodged in the wall inches from her face in her own living room. A
rocket exploded in the middle of the street directly in front of the car
young Larry Kemp was driving. The explosion blew out his tires, and made
Swiss cheese of the front of his vehicle.
After a few minutes the mayhem subsided and the bewildered residents of
Palmdale searched the skies. Was this a coordinated Russian attack? A
nefarious Sunday surprise? Luckily, no one was injured in the battle and
13 dud rockets were recovered by air force ordinance disposal teams. Yet
it took 500 of the region's firefighters two days to put out the raging
fires.
The pilots of the interceptor jets were running on fumes so they abandoned
the mission and returned to their base defeated. The drone itself headed
east and ran out of fuel. It descended in a spiral glide into an
unpopulated area eight miles east of Palmdale. In it’s final moments, it
sliced through some power lines and cartwheeled into the dirt,
disintegrating in the crash.
So this is the story of one of the few aerial battles to be fought in the
skies over the continental United States. The story of how one oblivious,
mindless drone evaded the concerted attacks of the best, state-of-the-art
weaponry of its day. A day that will live in infamy for the rest of
recorded history, and which will always be known as the Battle of Palmdale.
*Old history of PT. Mugu 1956. The battle of Palmdale.*August 16, 1956,
Palmdale California
At Point Mugu Naval air station, ground crews prepped an F6F-5K Hellcat
drone for it’s last flight ever. The Hellcat was painted high-visibility
red and was rigged to be guided by remote control. The plane was to fly out
over the vast pacific into a training scenario where the navy would blast
it out of the sky for target practice. But the Hellcat had other ideas.
Shortly after 11:30 A.M. the Hellcat drone took off from the navy base
heading west over the ocean. Soon thereafter it started a lazy turn to the
south and began heading straight towards the teeming metropolis of Los
Angeles. The remote controllers at the navy base tried frantically to turn
the escaped plane back out to the ocean to no avail. Having lost contact it
proceeded to head straight into the heart of one of the most populated
areas in the country. When all backup systems failed, the Navy finally gave
up and called for assistance. As the Navy had no fighter aircraft standing
by, they swallowed their pride and made a call to Oxnard Air Force Base.
Five miles north of the navy base were two F-89D Scorpion interceptor jets
ready to scramble. Being that this was in the thick of the cold war era,
the planes were armed and fueled and ready to go. The Scorpions were armed
with two rocket pods containing 52 Mighty Mouse rockets. These rockets were
designed to be fired into approaching Russian bomber formations and thus
had no guidance systems. However, today, this was an altogether different
threat. 1st Lt. Hans Einstein and his radar op 1st Lt. C. D. Murray
sprinted across the tarmac and climbed into their waiting silver steed. 1st
Lt. Richard Hurliman and 1st Lt Walter Hale jumped into the second plane
and joined the pursuit.
The Air Force planes raced southward at full speed to intercept the small
wandering blip on their radar. At 30,000 feet just north of Los Angeles the
sprinting jets intercepted the portly drone. It was on a southwest course
that took it directly over Los Angeles, then it turned slowly circling over
the city of Santa Paula. The pilots were waiting for it to wander away from
populated areas so they could blast it from the sky.
Soon the red Hellcat drifted over a rural area known as Antelope Valley.
The pilots tried to fire their rockets with a turning fire-fire control
method, but a malfunction in the system prevented the rockets from
igniting. The drone then turned southeast and began heading back for the
center of Los Angeles. Under pressure, the pilots decided it was now or
never. They abandoned the automatic fire modes on the rockets and decided
to launch them manually. One snag was that the gun sights had recently been
removed from the planes! The theory was that they shouldn’t ever have to
use them because the automated firing system would target the rockets, but
it had failed.
The pilots decided to fly by the seat of their pants and began their first
rocket run. They set their intervalometers to “ripple fire,” which would
strafe the plane with three rocket salvos. The first plane lined up and let
loose… and missed completely. The second plane’s rockets undershot the
fleeing drone.
The rockets blasted past the mindless drone, overshooting their target.
They then descended into the mountains near the town of Castaic and
exploded in the forest below. They started a raging forest fire that would
destroy 150 acres in an area known as Bouquet Canyon.
The second salvo of rockets also missed the drone, blasting into the town
of Newhall. These rockets started fires in an oil field. They ignited a
number of oil sumps and began a fire that burned more than 100 acres of
brush. These fires blazed out of control and almost reached the Bermite
Powder company’s explosives plant!
The drone continued to drift northward toward the town of Palmdale.
Frustrated, the pilots tried another rocket run. The first salvo went wide
again. From the second salvo, a few Mighty Mouse rockets bounced
harmlessly off the slow moving drone's belly.
Suddenly in the quiet bucolic town of Palmdale, all hell broke loose.
Mighty Mouse rockets fell from the sky like fiery hail. An explosion
outside Edna Carlson’s house caused shrapnel to smash her front window,
blast through a wall, and wreck her pantry. Mrs Lilly Willingham heard a
deafening explosion and nearly missed being maimed by a hot piece of metal
that lodged in the wall inches from her face in her own living room. A
rocket exploded in the middle of the street directly in front of the car
young Larry Kemp was driving. The explosion blew out his tires, and made
Swiss cheese of the front of his vehicle.
After a few minutes the mayhem subsided and the bewildered residents of
Palmdale searched the skies. Was this a coordinated Russian attack? A
nefarious Sunday surprise? Luckily, no one was injured in the battle and
13 dud rockets were recovered by air force ordinance disposal teams. Yet
it took 500 of the region's firefighters two days to put out the raging
fires.
The pilots of the interceptor jets were running on fumes so they abandoned
the mission and returned to their base defeated. The drone itself headed
east and ran out of fuel. It descended in a spiral glide into an
unpopulated area eight miles east of Palmdale. In it’s final moments, it
sliced through some power lines and cartwheeled into the dirt,
disintegrating in the crash.
So this is the story of one of the few aerial battles to be fought in the
skies over the continental United States. The story of how one oblivious,
mindless drone evaded the concerted attacks of the best, state-of-the-art
weaponry of its day. A day that will live in infamy for the rest of
recorded history, and which will always be known as the Battle of Palmdale.