Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Appendix E
342
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[figure]
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Project AXILLARY
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AXILLARY
While Project AQUILINE was still under development, its chief aerodynamicist, Charles N. Adkins, left the program because he believed that its escalating costs would prevent it from ever producing a deployable aircraft. He wanted to build a small, inexpensive remote-controlled aircraft to test a low-cost lightweight autopilot currently being developed by ORD. Under a $5,000 time-and-materials contract with Melpar, Incorporated, Adkins hired a local model aircraft builder to assemble and modify a standard Hawk-750 glider kit and power it with a rear-mounted engine and pusher propeller. Following a series of successful test flights, Adkins installed a small camera and took a number of aerial photographs.
By this time the effort to build a “Miniature Multi-Purpose Airborne Vehicle” had become known as Project AXILLARY. Melpar, Inc., received a second contract for $50,000 to install ORD’s autopilot in the aircraft, and the project managers now began searching for a use for their vehicle. The two main possibilities were (1) as a short-range reconnaissance vehicle for use in a peace-monitoring or intelligence-gathering system and (2) as a short-range warhead delivery system. In 1971 the Office of Special Activities evaluated AXILLARY flight-testing and determined that the small model aircraft was not suitable for use as a covert reconnaissance vehicle because of its large radar cross section and significant acoustical signature. The aircraft’s radar signature made it potentially useful as a weapons systems, however. ORD suggested that AXILLARY be equipped with a radar-homing unit [redacted] which would make it an inexpensive means for [redacted] surface-to-air missile systems in North Vietnam. The Director of
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Secret
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25