Today I learned the world's first mass-produced drone was built by a Hollywood actor
The first military drone built in serious numbers didn't come from a defense contractor or tech giant - but from Reginald Denny, a British-born silent film actor who sold model aircraft on Hollywood Boulevard.
His Radioplane OQ-2 was the first mass-produced drone in the United States - and by the end of World War II, his company had delivered nearly 15,000 target drones to the US Army according to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
From film sets to model planes
Denny, whose real name was Reginald Leigh Dugmore, starred in nearly two hundred films over a half-century period, including both silent films and talkies. Apart from being a professional actor, he was also part of a Hollywood stunt pilot group called Thirteen Black Cats.
While he never saw aerial combat due to a training injury, Denny trained for the Royal Flying Corps in World War I as an...
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