Boeing YQM-94 B-Gull

The Boeing YQM-94 B-Gull, also called Compass Cope B, was a developmental aerial reconnaissance drone that could take off and land from a runway like a manned aircraft and operate at high altitude for up to 24 hours on surveillance, communications relay or atmospheric sampling. It came from the US Air Force Compass Cope programme begun in 1971, in which it competed with Ryan's YQM-98A. The YQM-94A was a shoulder-wing monoplane that was basically a jet-powered sailplane, with long straight wings, a twin fin tail and a General Electric turbojet on its back, built of aluminium and fibreglass and flown remotely by a ground pilot using a nose camera. The first demonstrator flew on 28 July 1973 and crashed on its second flight; the second flew in November 1974. It won in 1976 but the programme was cancelled in July 1977.