AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer

The AeroVironment FQM-151 Pointer is a small hand-launched unmanned aircraft used by the United States Army and Marine Corps for battlefield surveillance. AeroVironment developed it with its own funds, and about fifty units went to the services from 1990. It looks like a radio-controlled sailplane with a pylon-mounted wing and pusher propeller, is built largely of Kevlar and is driven by an electric motor running on a lithium battery pack. Its fixed nose camera sent video to a ground station, and it was recovered by putting it into a flat spin so that it fluttered to the ground. It later received GPS and inertial navigation and led to several derivatives, among them the Raven.