| United States Radioplane OQ-14 Target Drone Kiekhaefer O-45-1 Engine Manufacturer: Kiekhaefer Corporation, Cedarburg, Wisconsin |
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| The Radioplane RP-8, above left, was introduced in April 1944. This was powered by a new 22 horsepower O-45-1 engine, allowing the aircraft to reach 141 miles per hour. This was taken into service as the Army Air Force OQ-14 and Navy Target Drone, Denny - TDD-3. Roughly 5,200 OQ-14/TDD-3's were produced in 1944 and 1945, Van Nuys Airport, California. It was the WWII Target Drone that would create Marilyn Monroe, above right photo. In late 1944, photographer David Conover, who had been sent by the U.S. Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) to the Radioplane Company factory at Van Nuys Airport to shoot morale-boosting pictures of female factory workers. It was on the Radioplane RP-5 - Army Air Force OQ-3 Target Drone assembly line that Conover saw a young woman assembler named Norma Jeane Dougherty, whom he thought had potential as a model. She was photographed working on the OQ-3 engines. Although none of her pictures were used by the FMPU, she quit working at the factory in 1945 and began modeling for Conover and his friends. After Norma Jeane Dougherty’s modeling and acting career would take off after WWII, she straightened her curly brunette hair, dyed it blond and changed her name to Marilyn Monroe – the name being created from the Broadway star Marilyn Miller and her mother's maiden name Monroe. |
| Kiekhaefer O-45-1 Engine, above two photos. Shown here, in the QuestMasters Museum collection, is the Radioplane Company RP-8 engine. The Radioplane RP-8 was introduced in April 1944. The target drone was powered by a new 22 horsepower O-45-1 engine, allowing the aircraft to reach 141 miles per hour. The RP-8 was taken into service as the Army Air Force OQ-14 and Navy Target Drone, Denny - TDD-3. Roughly 5,200 OQ-14/TDD-3's were produced in 1944 and 1945, Van Nuys Airport, California. The Kiekhaefer O-45-1 was a 20 horsepower, air cooled, 45 cubic inch motor, produced by the Kiekhaefer Corporation, Cedarburg, Wisconsin and fitted to the Radioplane RP-8. This example is Serial Number KC-82020, A.A.F. Model Specification R-28620, A.A.F. DWG. No. 45G7850, Order No. NOa(s) 6443, Manufactured in August 1945. |
