Hale high in the sky: turbine-engined unmanned aircraft with long-span wings offer the prospect of high-altitude, long endurance (Hale) surveillance of enemy territory; their cruise height of over 30,000 feet provides a long range to their sensor horizon and, given some degree of stealth, possible immunity from all but the most advanced air defence systems.

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Unmanned Flight

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Hale high in the sky: turbine-engined unmanned aircraft with long-span wings offer the prospect of high-altitude, long endurance (Hale) surveillance of enemy territory; their cruise height of over 30,000 feet provides a long range to their sensor horizon and, given some degree of stealth, possible immunity from all but the most advanced air defence systems.

It is believed that the first trials with a camera-equipped remotely piloted vehicle (RPV) were carried out at the German Air Force's Rechlin flight test centre near Berlin in 1939. For all practical purposes, the concept then disappeared until 1959, when the Ryan Aeronautical Company (later Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical or TRA, now part of Northrop Grumman) began studies of converting the jet-powered BQM-34A target drone for unmanned reconnaissance duties. The initial aim was to overfly the-Soviet Union from the Barents Sea to Turkey.

The loss of manned U-2s over the Soviet Union in 1960 and over China and Cuba in 1962 encouraged the introduction of the 1500 kg-class Ryan Model 147 Firebee series, from 1969 designated AQM-34. It was powered by a single turbojet, initially a Teledyne Continental J69 and later the same company's J100 or the General Electric J85. Interestingly, some degree of stealth was attempted from the outset, with wire mesh over the air intake, special paint and radar-absorbent pads on the fuselage, and a 'no-con' system that eliminated the condensation trail by injecting chlorosulphuric acid into the jet.

The Model 147 was funded from 1962 under the US Air Force's Big Safari programme and began operations from Kadena AB, Okinawa in late 1964....

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