ORIGINAL: hugj
BTW Nikola Tesla1898 a radio controlled boat!
Mary (wifey) cheated. She says it was John Hays Hammond. Not the guy from Jurassic park, but a friend of Tesla's. He was an apprentice under Edison at 12 years old in 1898, and is considered the father of radio control due to the experiments he performed with Edison. He later worked with Tesla to build a small radio controlled boat. The boat was exhibited at Madison Square Garden and it apparrently obeyed commands from the audience, but was infact controlled by Tesla.
In 1923, radio control control gear developed by Hammond was installed on the obsolete USS Iowa, a target ship for radio controlled naval artillery target practice.
In the 1930's the Soviet Army used radio controlled Teletanks during the winter war against Finland. A teletank is controlled by radio from a 'control tank' at a distance of 500 to 1500 meters. The two tanks constituted a telemechanical group. The Red Army also had remotely controlled Cutters and airplanes.
In the 1930's Brittain developed a radio controlled Tiger Moth called the 'Queen Bee'. It was used for gunnery firing practice. 1.
1. Wikipedia