Mystery Airplane Contest – June 2025

The Interstate Aircraft & Engineering Corporation was formed in April 1937 to manufacture aircraft parts and systems for other companies. Based at El Segundo, CA, it built hydraulic equipment, bomb shackles, and gun chargers. In 1940, it produced a two-seat light cabin monoplane called the Cadet.

Development of television and the radar altimeter encouraged the Navy to investigate design and production of a remote-control bomb, which under the guidance of John Kean of the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, evolved into the TDN-1. In August 1943, this then secret aircraft was flown from the...