History talk uncovers wartime past of Wurlitzer

DeKALB — What started as a random garage-sale find has turned into an obsession for Roger Keys to learn more about Wurlitzer's role as a producer of World War II drone planes.

Keys shared the knowledge he's gained, along with a number of photos and videos, at a recent meeting of the DeKalb County Historical and Genealogical Society.

"My wife dragged me to a garage sale in Waterman and I found this," Keys said, holding up a model of the drones built at the DeKalb Wurlitzer plant in the 1940s. "It took me eight years just to identify it."

The plane was the Interstate TDR, built for the U.S. Navy. Keys said prior to World War II, Wurlitzer built pianos, organs and accordions. Because employees knew how to work with wood and because it was next door to a furniture factory, the company was in a good position to build the radio-controlled drones. He said it took seven months to retool the factory.

DeKalb's Taylor Municipal Airport was built by the Navy to test the planes. It was turned over to the city after the war.

"Is there anyone here that worked at Wurlitzer?" Keys asked the group assembled for the meeting at Oak Crest. When no one responded, he was told a couple of former employees can be found living at Barb City Manor in DeKalb.

"I need to get there and talk to them," Keys said.

Most of the employees who worked on the project were never aware that the planes were actually operational in the South Pacific, he said.

"The whole project was top secret. The cover story was they were building target planes."

The drones were tested by a live pilot, disassembled and shipped to the South Pacific theater, where they were fitted with a movie camera, the equipment to allow the plane to be controlled remotely by a mother plane and a 2,000-pound bomb. The cockpit assembly was removed.

The building is still in use by GE and "you can still see the aircraft hangar door at the south end of the building," Keys said.

Research has turned up, not only the information Keys shared, but also parts of planes. He said he has several of the glass discs placed in the nose of the plane through which the cameras filmed. He has maps and schematic drawings, and was able to assist in a production of PBS' "History Detectives" with information about the planes after a former Lily Lake resident found a propeller in Virgil.

Keys said the episode is tentatively scheduled to air on July 17.