A piece of 1940s-era aircraft just washed up on the Cape Cod shore
A piece of military equipment from the 1940s and 50s washed up on a Cape Cod beach last week.
A park historian with Cape Cod National Seashore, a part of the U.S. National Park Service, inspected the object that washed up on Marconi Beach and learned it was the fuselage of a RCAT (Remote Control Aerial Target).
"RCATs were drone planes used for target practice for anti-aircraft training off Marconi at a former United States military training camp (Camp Wellfleet) during the 1940s and 50s." the group wrote in a Facebook post.
The group said the piece of material looked like it had been in the water for "some time," and staff picked it up so it wouldn't be swept away by an incoming storm.
Bazooka rounds, ammo, projectiles have all washed up through the years
According to the agency, aircrafts that were equipped with an RCAT would "take off from a now defunct runway located in the woods of Wellfleet," before the RCAT would then be "rocket-launched off the aircraft at 0 to 60 mph within the first 30 feet, and then controlled remotely from the bluff."
Camp Wellfleet was a former military training facility in Wellfleet, Massachusetts that was abandoned in 1961, according to a website dedicated to remembering the men and women who served there, since "nature and erosion helped it virtually disappear without a trace."
The training facility was operational for nearly 19 years. There have been a number of items including "anti-aircraft projectiles, bazooka rounds, smoke grenades, and small arms ammunition" have been recovered in the area, mainly along the beach.