Curtiss-Wright KD2C Skeet

The Curtiss-Wright KD2C Skeet was an American target drone produced by Curtiss-Wright for the United States Navy, with development beginning in 1945. It was powered by a pulsejet engine and was meant to be air-launched for fleet gunnery training. The KD2C-1 used a Continental pulsejet 14 inches in diameter, the KD2C-2 a McDonnell J-9 or J-11 pulsejet of the same size, and radio command with a gyrostabilizer controlled it. The first prototype flew in 1947, but the internally mounted pulsejet gave low speed and high fuel consumption in wind tunnel and flight tests at the Navy Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, California. The programme was cancelled in 1949 and the last aircraft produced were out of service by 1951. A KD2C-2 is displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum.