Investigators for the popular PBS series HISTORY DETECTIVES are following clues to the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum. HISTORY DETECTIVES host Elyse Luray has a 1940s propeller found along a rural airstrip in Illinois. She hopes experts at the museum will help her place this propeller in its proper historical context. On Saturday, March 19, Elyse will interview Hill Goodspeed, curator of the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum, and Bob Bothfield who served as an engineer in World War II.
Here are more details about the investigation:
DRONE PROPELLER
Working beside a rural airstrip, an Illinois man dug up an intriguing find: an eight-foot long wooden airplane propeller. A little research online made him believe that his propeller might be from a TDR-1 plane, a pioneering U.S. assault drone plane from World War II. Various websites say the TDR-1 were the first drones, the prototype of the unmanned assault planes used today in Afghanistan and Iraq. HISTORY DETECTIVES host Elyse Luray investigates whether this propeller is an important piece of American military history or simply fell off a local prop plane.
Working beside a rural airstrip, an Illinois man dug up an intriguing find: an eight-foot long wooden airplane propeller. A little research online made him believe that his propeller might be from a TDR-1 plane, a pioneering U.S. assault drone plane from World War II. Various websites say the TDR-1 were the first drones, the prototype of the unmanned assault planes used today in Afghanistan and Iraq. HISTORY DETECTIVES host Elyse Luray investigates whether this propeller is an important piece of American military history or simply fell off a local prop plane.
The Drone Propeller story will air with HISTORY DETECTIVES’ ninth season during the summer of 2011 on WSRE.
About HISTORY DETECTIVES
HISTORY DETECTIVES is a popular PBS series where history investigators crisscross the country, delving into legends, folklore and personal histories to discover potentially extraordinary objects in everyday American homes, cities and small towns. Lion Television and Oregon Public Broadcasting co-produce the series. Find out more about the series at our website: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives.
HISTORY DETECTIVES is a popular PBS series where history investigators crisscross the country, delving into legends, folklore and personal histories to discover potentially extraordinary objects in everyday American homes, cities and small towns. Lion Television and Oregon Public Broadcasting co-produce the series. Find out more about the series at our website: http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives.
