The MQM-61 Cardinal was a target drone designed and built by

Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general avi ...

Development

USS Boston (CAG-1) launches KDB-1 drone c1962

While the

Radioplane BTT The Radioplane BTT, known as RP-71 by the company, as WS-426/2 by the United States Navy, and as WS-462/2 by the US Air Force, is a family of target drones produced by the Radioplane Company (later a division of Northrop). History In the pos ...

was a popular piston-powered target, such a simple target was relatively easy to build and it developed competition. In 1955 Beechcraft designed the Model 1001, as the initial version of this target drone was designated, in response to a

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

requirement for gunnery and air-to-air combat training. Production of the type began in 1959, with the drone being given the Navy designation of KDB-1, later MQM-39A. The Model 1001 led to the similar Model 1025 for the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, which gave it the MQM-61A designation. Beech also designed a variant powered by a turbojet engine and designated Model 1025-TJ, but nobody bought it. The MQM-61A was a simple monoplane with a vee tail. It was substantially larger than the MQM-36 Shelduck, and powered by a 94 kW (125 hp) McCulloch TC6150-J-2 flat-six, air-cooled, two-stroke piston engine driving a two-blade propeller. It could tow banners or targets of its own, with two targets under each wing, and also carried scoring devices. Launch was by

RATO Rato is a village in the Cornillon commune in the Croix-des-Bouquets Arrondissement, Ouest Ouest (French for west) may refer to: *Ouest (department), Haiti *Ouest Department (Ivory Coast), defunct administrative subdivision of Ivory Coast * Oue ...

booster, recovery was by parachute. A total of 2,200 Cardinals of all variants were built, the majority for the US Army, with the rest operated by the US Navy, the US Marine Corps.

Surviving aircraft

* MQM-61 on display at the Aviation Unmanned Vehicle Museum in

Caddo Mills, Texas Caddo Mills ( ) is a city in Hunt County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,338 at the 2010 census, up from 1,149 at the 2000 census. Geography Caddo Mills is located in western Hunt County at (33.064748, –96.229040). Texas State Hig ...

. * MQM-61 on display at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.

Specifications (MQM-61A)

References

External links

{{USN drones MQM-061 1950s United States special-purpose aircraft Target drones of the United States Single-engined tractor aircraft High-wing aircraft