Beechcraft MQM-61 Cardinal

The Beechcraft MQM-61 Cardinal is a target drone designed and built by Beechcraft. The company designed the Model 1001 in 1955 in response to a US Navy requirement for gunnery and air-to-air combat training, at a time when the piston-powered Radioplane BTT was a popular target, and production began in 1959 with the Navy designation KDB-1, later MQM-39A. The similar Model 1025 for the US Army received the designation MQM-61A. It is a simple monoplane with a vee tail, substantially larger than the MQM-36 Shelduck, powered by a 94 kW McCulloch TC6150-J-2 air-cooled two-stroke piston engine driving a two-blade propeller. It can tow banners or targets of its own and carries scoring devices, is launched by a RATO booster and is recovered by parachute. A total of 2,200 Cardinals of all variants were built, the majority for the US Army.