Mystery Airplane: May 2015

In this day of Predators, Reapers, Global Hawks, and other unmanned aerial vehicles, we forget that aircraft similar in concept have been trialed over the whole course of aviation's century plus evolution. The Boeing YQM-94A is one example. Ordered in 1971 by the U.S. Air Force Aeronautical System Division for high altitude, long RANGE unmanned recon, the YQM-94A and the Ryan YQM-98A, were meant to launch and recover from a fixed runway. Two prototypes of each were ordered. The YQM-94A was flown by a pilot on the ground sing a TV camera in the aircraft's nose. Testing of the remote flight cont...