Airborne Surveillance Drone Fairchild SD-5 Osprey AN/USD-5 from R & D Progress Report 3 1961 US Army

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more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/aviation_news_and_search.html Public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/sd-5.html In 1958, Fairchild received a U.S. Army contract to develop a jet-powered surveillance drone for the AN/USD-5 drone surveillance system. The drone itself, named Osprey, was referred to either as SD-5 or also as AN/USD-5, although the latter was more properly the designation of the whole system. The Osprey first flew in May 1960. The SD-5 was a subsonic delta-wing aircraft powered by a single Pratt & Whitney J60 turbojet. It was zero-length launched with the help of a single solid-propellant rocket booster (giving 178 kN (40000 lb) of thrust for 3 sec) and recovered by parachute. The drone had an operational radius of 1600 km (1000 miles) and could fly at altitudes between a few hundred feet and 10700 m (35000 ft). Projected payloads were infrared scanners, side-looking radar and optical mapping systems. The sensor data could either be transmitted by radio or stored for examination after drone recovery. The Army had planned to have the AN/USD-5 system operational by 1964. However, in November 1962 the program was cancelled because of budget constraints... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratt_&_Whitney_JT12 The Pratt & Whitney JT12 and J60 are small turbojets. Turboshaft versions for naval use are known as the FT12. The JFTD12 (military designation T73) is a related turboshaft engine. Design and development The J60 conception and project design began in July 1957 at United Aircraft of Canada (now Pratt & Whitney Canada) in Montreal. The project design details were transferred to the main P&W; company in East Hartford. In May 1958, the first prototype, with military designation YJ60-P-1, was decided jointly with the USAF and US Navy. Flight tests were completed in early 1959; followed by the delivery of the new JT12A-5 engines in July 1959. These were for the two Canadair CL-41 prototype trainers with a rating of 12.9 kN (2,900 lb st). The modified JT12A-3 turbojets with a basic rating of 14.69 kN (3,300 lb st) were tested in the two Lockheed XV-4A Hummingbird VTOL research aircraft. The next version, JT12A-21, had an afterburner which delivered a maximum thrust of 17.91 kN (4,025 lb st). Variants (Data from Janes) - YJ60-P-1—prototype - JT12A-3LH - JT12A-5 --(J60-P-3/5/6) T-O ratings: from 12.9 kN (2,900 lb st) to 13.35 kN (3,000 lb st) - JT12A-21—17.9 kN (4,025 lb st) - J60-P-3 - J60-P-6 Applications Civilian (JT12) - Lockheed JetStar [bizjet seen in the film "Goldfinger"] - North American Sabreliner Military (J60) - T-2B Buckeye - T-39 Sabreliner - Sikorsky XH-59/S-69 - XV-4 Hummingbird