112
Russell C. Coile
Prime contract awarded: August 11, 1941
Mechanical engineering contract awarded: September 3,
1941
Construction began: September 11, 1941
First occupants move in: April 29, 1942
Construction completed: January 15, 1943
Total Land Area: 583 acres
Cost of Land: $2,245,000
Area covered by Pentagon building: 29 acres
Parking space: 67 acres
Capacity: 8,770 vehicles
Total cost of project: $83,000,000 (1943)
Floor area: 3,705,793 sq ft
Length of each outer wall: 921 ft
Height of building: 77 ft
Total length of corridors: 17.5 miles
Special construction features: Because the area was a swamp,
the building rests on 41,492 concrete piles
Operation Aphrodite
Another important project of mine in 1944 was with the
General Instrument Company in New Jersey. They were
building a radio transmitter which could be mounted in a
bomber aircraft to send up/down, right/left control signals
to a receiver in another aircraft fl ying in formation with it.
The US Navy had a squadron in England of B-24 type aircraft
which the Navy called PB4Y-2. Someone came up with the idea
of guiding a radio-controlled aircraft loaded with explosives
across the North Sea from England to Germany. The control
aircraft would steer the drone into a dive on a V-2 launching
site. These drone aircraft were called "Weary Willies" because
they were deemed to be too dangerous for any further
operational missions because of damage from German anti-
aircraft artillery or just plain old age. However, the scheme
in "Operation Aphrodite" was to repair them for one fi nal
kamikaze dive into a diffi cult target -- a V-2 launching site.
Lt Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., USN, was a navy pilot who had
volunteered for one of these missions. Joe was the drone's