The Battle of Palmdale

In August of 1956, the U.S. Navy lost control of one of their target drones, a converted F6F Hellcat, near NAS Point Mugu a few miles west of Los Angeles. They quickly alerted the Air Force at nearby Oxnard Air Base, who scrambled two F-89D Scorpion rocket-armed interceptors to eliminate the drone, which had begun spiraling upward to 30,000 feet and circling towards Los Angeles.

The rocket targeting systems on the two interceptors failed to function. The gunsights had been removed when the targeting radar was installed -- since they obviously wouldn't be needed anymore. So the pilots proceeded to lick their thumbs and "eyeball it." They fired 208 Mighty Mouse rockets at the wayward drone, none of which hit. They did, however, manage to set afire 1,000 acres of countryside, destroy a county utility van, and severely damage the kitchen cupboard of Mrs Edna Carlson on Third Street in Palmdale.

The drone crashed in the desert. The F-89D rocket-armed variant of the Scorpion was quietly phased out of service. Fortunately there were no casualties, aside from the pride of the Navy and Air Force, who both agreed it would be best to forget the whole embarrassing incident. National security reasons, you know...

Wikipedia entry