Canadair CL-89

The Canadair CL-89 was a surveillance drone developed in the 1960s and produced jointly by Canada, Britain and West Germany. In June 1963 Canada and Britain sponsored Canadair to design, evaluate and test it, West Germany joined later, and the United States was invited but declined. The first flight, at Yuma, Arizona in March 1964, went badly and the development was difficult enough that the project was almost abandoned, but the first complete system reached West Germany in 1969, and France and Italy later joined the British and Germans as operators. NATO designated the system AN/USD-501 and British forces called it the Midge. The drone was launched from truck-mounted rails with a booster rocket, cruised on a small turbojet, and was brought down by parachute and landing bags after photographing enemy positions with film cameras or an infrared linescan. It weighed 78 kilograms empty and reached 740 kilometres per hour. The larger CL-289 followed under a 1987 agreement between Canada, West Germany and France.