Meteor - 1979 Chris-Craft Stinger Excalibur 310 (Stinger 312)

James Loeschen, part of the management team at Chris-Craft from 1979-1980, says that in 1979/1980, Chris-Craft received an order from a private contractor for 6 Excaliburs to be used as drones for the US Navy. He describes the drones as: "They were international orange gelcoat. Decks, Hulls Cockpit liners, Hatches, etc.. Everything forward of the cockpit was filled with flotation foam. There was a cockpit cover custom molded and it had 2 large flat hatches bolted down on it for access to the cockpit for the controls so it could be manually driven and so the electronics for the remote controls could be added on after we delivered them to the contractor.. There was a water activated strobe light on the deck at the very bow. Also I designed a steel frame that attached to the hull stringers and extended out the top of the boat fore and aft on center. It was about 5 or 6 feet long and had 2 bars with dividers at the top to create several openings in the frame where a big hook from the ship could hook on and lift the drone out of the water and set it on the deck of the ship for repairs and recycling of the drone when possible. So, if the drone was hit, the engines weighed down the stern and the flotation foam floated the bow so it would bob like a buoy with the strobe flashing so the USN ship could locate it after it was hit."