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Ryan AQM-91 Firefly / Compass Arrow

1968 COLD WAR X-PLANE DRONE TECHNOLOGY

History

Teledyne Ryan / Ryan Aeronautical produced the AQM-91 "Firefly" as an unmanned aerial system (UAS) for high altitude stealth and photo reconnaissance. Development began in the late 1960s and the design was approved for use in the United States. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the United States Air Force (USAF) secretly fly over Chinese airspace - of particular interest to China's growing nuclear technology site.

The first flight was in September 1968. This product is also known as the "compass".

To meet the requirements, the Firefly has an operating altitude of 78,000 feet, a mission duration of 4.5 hours, and a range of up to 2,000 miles. Onboard photography equipment made it possible to photograph most of the territory from an altitude of 15 miles, with details clear to within a foot. Externally, the UAS adopts a more traditional aircraft-type configuration, with swept wings, dual vertical vertical stabilizers, and a central fuselage nacelle. The engine is mounted on the fuselage spine as a single General Electric YJ97-GE-3 4,000-pound turbojet.

The "stealth" quality is covered by sloping surfaces, special body paint and onboard electronics.

The AQM-91 was designed to be air-launched from a mothership - it was a Lockheed DC-130E Hercules (a drone-controlled variant of the famous transport aircraft) - and as such was not equipped with its own launch facility. From there, the drone will run on its own power and use its onboard systems for autonomous driving.

However, the manual override function allows the ground controller to take over the function as needed.

With some thawing in the US. S. Relationship In the early 1970s, the aircraft no longer had specific mission requirements within CIA/USAF, although about 28 had been completed (eight prototypes, twenty production quality units).

As a result, the route never flew a single mission in Chinese airspace during its lifetime, and was eventually phased out in 1973.

Ryan Aeronautical was established in 1934 and became part of Teledyne (renamed Teledyne-Ryan) in 1969. In 1999, Teledyne-Ryan was acquired by the Northrop Grumman brand.