Drone's first war

Model 147 Lightning Bugs start out as targets for military training exercises in the 1950s. But the shoot-downs of manned U-2 spy planes over the Soviet Union and Cuba compel the Pentagon to modify the targets into front-line warplanes. It's easier said than done.

Part One

Drones as rice-paddy lawn-darts

Bob Schwanhausser and his crew battle the weather, unreliable hardware, a labyrinthine bureaucracy -- oh, and communist troops -- as they struggle to make new drone technology work in some of the most brutal conditions on Earth.

Part Two

Drone-watching from prison

Being expendable, Model 147 drones help extend U.S. air power over even the most dangerous corners of North Vietnam.&nbsp;

Part Three

The first robot war

Drones played an important and unheralded role in the U.S. air war over Vietnam and surrounding countries in the 1960s and ‘70s. Model 147 Lightning Bugs, based on the Q-2 target drone, spotted targets for manned bombers, jammed enemy radars and scattered propaganda leaflets. In 11 years of combat starting in 1964, USAF planes in Southeast Asia launched more than a thousand Lightning Bugs on more than 3,000 sorties. The Vietnam drone war was waged by a misfit crew of contractors and airmen led by some of the era’s most ingenious engineers and managers. And for much of the conflict, they answered to one person. Bob Schwanhausser. The secretive chief of a secret war … with their own secrets to keep. Drone! is an audio adaptation of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Drone-War-Vietnam-David-Axe/dp/1526770261" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Drone War: Vietnam</a>, a nonfiction book about the world’s first robot war. By David Axe, a <a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/House-Monster-DVD/561363773" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">filmmaker</a> and reporter for <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forbes</a>.

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Drone!

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