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1960s

AQM-34 Ryan Firebee (USA)

AQM-34 Ryan Firebee (USA)
In 1960, the U.S. Air Force began its first stealth aircraft program and undertook to modify combat UAVs for reconnaissance missions. Engineers reduced the radar signature of a jet-powered Q-2C Firebee by fitting a specially designed screen over the engine's air intake, placing radar-absorbing blankets on the fuselage sides, and covering the aircraft with a newly developed anti-radar paint. The resulting AQM-34 Ryan Firebee was air-launched and controlled from a DC-130 director aircraft. After a mission, the Firebee UAV was directed to a safe recovery area, where it deployed its parachute and was picked up by a helicopter.

Test flights proved that Firebee UAVS could provide covert surveillance. From October 1964 to April 1975, more than 1,000 AQM-34 Ryan Firebee UAVs flew in excess of 34,000 operational surveillance missions over Southeast Asia. They were deployed from Japan, South Vietnam, and Thailand, and flew daytime and nighttime surveillance, leaflet-dropping missions, and surface-to-air missile radar detection over North Vietnam and southeast China. The Firebee was extremely reliable; 83 percent of the Firebees flown during the Vietnam War returned to fly another day.

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