10/16/2026
Long before “drone” became a word associated with modern warfare, the U.S. Navy was already flying unmanned aircraft by radio control, and one of the airplanes helping make that possible was an unusual version of the Beechcraft Model 18.
In June 1940, the Navy ordered its first five JRB-1s, specially equipped Twin Beeches intended to serve as airborne drone-control aircraft. Eventually, 11 were acquired. What immediately distinguished the JRB-1 was the large, windowed cupola built above the cockpit. Inside were the radio-control pilot and radio operator, positioned where they could maintain visual contact with the unmanned aircraft they were directing. Two 30-inch radio antenna masts projected above the cupola for the control equipment.
The idea was remarkably advanced for 1940. The Navy had been experimenting with pilotless aircraft for years, but the program gained momentum after Chief of Naval Operations Admiral William H. Standley watched Britain's radio-controlled “Queen Bee” target aircraft in operation in 1936. The Navy subsequently assigned Lt. Cmdr. Delmar Fahrney to develop its own radio-controlled aircraft, and it was Fahrney who helped popularize the term “drone” for them.
The drones gave Navy antiaircraft crews something far more realistic to shoot at than a target being towed behind another airplane. A remotely controlled aircraft could maneuver independently and simulate an attacking enemy aircraft without putting a pilot aboard the target. The JRB-1 provided the humans in the loop. From the Beech's elevated observation station, operators could watch the drone and transmit commands to it by radio.
And although its bulbous rooftop cupola made it one of the strangest-looking members of the enormous Beech 18 family, the JRB-1 was helping pioneer technology that would eventually lead far beyond target practice. The Navy continued developing remotely controlled airplanes during World War II, progressing from target drones toward experimental unmanned attack aircraft controlled from accompanying airplanes.
Today, remotely piloted aircraft can be controlled from thousands of miles away using satellites, computers, cameras, and digital data links. In 1940, the Navy's solution involved a pair of radial engines, a radio transmitter and two men peering through the windows of a glass cupola on top of a Beechcraft.
