Drone Flight and Failure: the United States’ Secret Trials, Experiments and Operations in Unmanning, 1936-1973

Drone Flight and Failure: the United States’ Secret Trials, Experiments and Operations in Unmanning, 1936-1973 By Katherine Fehr Chandler A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and the Designated Emphasis in New Media in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor David Bates, Co-Chair Professor Charis Thompson, Co-Chair Professor Samera Esmeir Professor Jake Kosek Spring 2014 Drone Flight and Failure: the United States’ Secret Trials, Experiments and Operations in Unmanning, 1936-1973 ©2014 by Katherine Fehr Chandler Abstract Drone Flight and Failure: the United States’ Secret Trials, Experiments and Operations in Unmanning, 1936-1973 by Katherine Fehr Chandler Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and the Designated Emphasis in New Media University of California, Berkeley Professor David Bates, Co-Chair Professor Charis Thompson, Co-Chair I examine the precursors to contemporary unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) to ask what is at stake in the designation “unmanned?” The apparent misnomer dissociates technologies and humans, occluding how international interventions, including surveillance, military support, signals intelligence, and targeted killing, are carried out through actions networked between humans and nonhumans. I use a genealogical approach to address how tensions and contradictions articulated by unmanning emerge, using the development, operation and failure of unmanned systems to complicate divisions between human and nonhuman; “us” and the enemy; immersion and distance; military and industry; and above and below. I identify two phases in the development of remote controlled and unmanned aircraft in the United States: targeting and reconnaissance. Contemporary UCAVs loop together these practices, even as they separate socio-political relations from technical artifacts and their resultant role in geopolitics. In the first period between 1936 and 1944, drone technologies shape and were shaped by targeting. I begin in 1936, when a Navy program to produce remote controlled aircraft was given the code name drone. Drones from the interwar era were developed as targets to train anti-aircraft gunners, even while the technologies also became the first television guided weapons, described as “American Kamikazes,” used briefly in World War II. In the second phase between 1956 and 1973, I explore so-called unmanning. This part turns to pilotless reconnaissance aircraft from the Cold War conceived as replacements for manned spy planes after the Francis Powers U-2 incident in 1960, also based on a target plane, the Firebee. These projects were used for over 3000 pilotless flights to collect surveillance over Southeast Asia. 1 Contents Acknowledgements ii List of Figures iv Abbreviations v Drone, Aircraft and Missile Designations vi Introduction 1 Part One. Targets and Targeting 11 Chapter 1. The Drone and the Queen Bee 12 Chapter 2. American Kamikaze 35 Part Two. Unmanning 58 Chapter 3. No-Body 59 Chapter 4. Drones from Above and Below 81 Conclusion 103 Endnotes 106 Bibliography 135 i Acknowledgements When I began writing about drones in 2009, unmanned aircraft had not yet emerged as a major topic of public debate and their increasing use for targeted killings in the War on Terror was largely undiscussed. My dissertation committee nonetheless recognized the potential of this project. I am grateful they saw its relevance and assured me, at some point, others would find my research significant as well. David Bates has been throughout my graduate studies a thoughtful mentor, encouraging adviser, critical reader and is an exemplary scholar. I have learned so much. Charis Thompson’s work in science and technology studies was an early model and I have been delighted to think with her during the past several years. Jake Kosek has shared my interest in drones (by way of bees) and I am thankful for his engagement with my research. He is a challenging reader and enthusiastic interlocutor. Samera Esmeir’s attention to my arguments and writing provided welcomed advice, guiding me to bring forward my voice and foreground the significance of my ideas. Each one has been an inspiration for my scholarship. In 2009, Paul Chan, after a guest-lecture at the Berkeley Art Museum, asked if anyone was interested in filming an intervention outside of Las Vegas about drone warfare. Claudia Salamanca and I volunteered. This trip changed what I planned to do in graduate school and led to this project. I am grateful to Paul for the opportunity and to Claudia for her ongoing friendship. She is an inspiration as an artist and thinker. At Berkeley, I benefitted from the companionship of numerous scholars and graduate students. The members of my cohort Matt Bonal, Amanda Armstrong and Paul Nadal share a commitment to politically engaged, critical thinking and I learned from each of them. Juliana Chow and Maude Emerson helped organize the Mediating Natures working group, which was formative in my intellectual development and a highlight of graduate school. Aglaya Glebova was an interlocutor throughout the dissertation and I have relied heavily on and benefitted a great deal from her feedback. I am also thankful to Emily Carpenter, IK Udekwu, Suzanne Li Puma, Simona Schneider, Amira Silmi, Javier Arbona, Nick Sower, Gillian Osborne, Keerthi Potluri, Kris Fallon, Alenda Chang, Rima Hussein, Anjali Nath, Kelli Moore, Margaret Rhee and Milad Odabaei for their thoughtful engagement with my work. Kaja Silverman’s, “Installations, Projections, and Divagations,” set a high bar for an interdisciplinary seminar and continues to be, for me, an exceptional class. Anne-Lise Francois’ seminar, “Eco-criticism meets Bio-politics,” foregrounded key concepts in my thinking and I am grateful for her interest in my work. Qui Parle published an early review I wrote, “Political Environments.” At the Berkeley Center for New Media, Gail De Kosnik and Ken Goldberg both encouraged my research and helped me to think unmanned aircraft as new media. I am also grateful to Eric Paulos, who organized the Robots and New Media Conference and included me in the process. At the Berkeley Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society, Sam Evans and Cori Hayden both encouraged this project. Mireille Rosello and Margriet Schavemaker were early supporters of my research at the University of Amsterdam. I received fellowships for my dissertation research from the Townsend Center for the Humanities and the Berkeley Center for New Media, which were critical for both the research and writing phases of this project. The Townsend Center for the Humanities 2013-2014 Fellows provided ii feedback about the first chapter. Later in the year, I received comments from the Rhetoric Department Dissertation Workshop on the third chapter. In addition, portions of this research were presented at numerous conferences and workshops. I am thankful to the Cultures of Surveillance Conference at the University College of London; the Barcelona Centre of International Affairs; the Gender, Bodies, Technology Conference at Virginia Tech; Speculative Visions of Race, Science, Technology and Survival at the University of California, Berkeley; the Princeton-Weimar New Media Summer School; the Society for the Social Studies of Science Conference in San Diego, CA; Modes of Techno-Scientific Knowledge Workshop; the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley; and the Pan-Optics Conference at the University of California, Berkeley. At the National Air and Space Museum, Roger Conner, curator of unmanned aircraft, was enormously helpful and I benefitted from my conversations with Richard Whittle, as well. I am thankful to Elizabeth Borja and Brian Nicklas for their guidance in the National Air and Space Museum Archives. Alan Renga at the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives was also provided helpful assistance. My friendships with Matt Aldrich, Elisabeth Humphris, Nicole Ganzekaufer, Irina Barakova, Jessica Campese, Gabriel Pacyniak, Elizabeth Elia, Shane Riley, Anna Montana, Jonathan Spector, Eric Schweiker, Jennifer Hulme, Gerardo Camargo, Alison Schneider, Mayra Rivera, Jerneja Rabernak, Tobias Lechtenfeld, Annemarie Blumenhagen, Seiko Miki, Ulus Atayurt, Cassie Thornton, Heidi Nelson, Huong Ngo, Stephanie Sherman, Donald Russell, Shiloh Krupar and Josh McDonald give me joy and insight. I’m so glad I know you and we find each other, here and there, on this planet. My sister, Abigail Chandler knows me like no one else and I am so thankful for this. My parents, Elizabeth Patric and Geoffrey Chandler, have always believed in the tangled pathways I have followed. I am grateful for their love, curiosity, life-long learning, as well as the sense of self-determination and social obligation they shared with me. iii Figures 1 Collected Records of Delmar Fahrney, Laboratory Drone 17 2 Early Navy Radio-Controlled Target Airplanes, NT Drone 18 3 Early Navy Radio-Controlled Target Airplanes, Radio Control 24 Set-Up for Drone Practice at Otay Mesa 4 Early Navy Radio-Controlled Target Airplanes, Beachcraft in Flight with Drone 25 5 Service Test of an Assault Drone, Stills – Drone Nose-Over 46 6 Service Test of an Assault Drone, Stills – Television Control 47 7 Service Test of an Assault Drone, Stills – Kamikaze Drone Attack 48 8 Ryan Aeronautical Press Release, Firebee Drone and Caption 60 9 Ryan Reporter, “The Bee with the Electronic Brain” 62 10 Ryan Aeronautical Press Release,

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