The BTT3 Banshee, formerly the Target Technology Banshee & Meggitt Banshee, is a British

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operationa ...

developed in the 1980s for air defence systems training.

Design and development

The Banshee was developed by Target Technology Ltd. The company had been specialising in lightweight engines for drones and had developed its own design in 1983. Banshee is a built mostly out of composite material (Kevlar and glass-reinforced plastic) with a tailless

delta wing A delta wing is a wing shaped in the form of a triangle. It is named for its similarity in shape to the Greek uppercase letter delta (Δ). Although long studied, it did not find significant applications until the Jet Age, when it proved suitabl ...

planform. The first models used a 26 hp 342 cc Normalair-Garrett two-cylinder two-stroke driving a pusher propeller. Performance was 35-185 kt with an endurance from 1–3 hours. Flight control is by two elevons. 185kt. Later models used

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada *Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

P73 rotary engines

Operational history

Banshee entered service with the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

in the mid-1980s as an aerial target for the Short Blowpipe and

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...

shoulder-launched missiles. Banshee has been deployed in over 40 Countries. It has been tested against Blowpipe,

Chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterranean c ...

, Crotale,

Phalanx The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly use ...

Rapier A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Impor ...

, Hisar (including Hisar O+ and Siper),

Sea Sparrow RIM-7 Sea Sparrow is a U.S. ship-borne short-range anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapon system, primarily intended for defense against anti-ship missiles. The system was developed in the early 1960s from the AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile as a ...

QRSAM Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) is a missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited for the Indian Army, meant for protecting moving armoured ...

, Akash SAM and Barak 8 SAM systems.

Operators

* * * Operated by the Inter Service Drone Section * * * * * * * * * * *

Variants

*Banshee 300 - (1988) *Banshee 400 - Reconnaissance (2001) *Banshee 500 - First model to include all epoxy based composite construction *Banshee 600 - Evolution of the 500 variant *Banshee Jet 40 - Single turbine *Banshee Jet 80 - Twin turbine

Specifications Meggitt BTT-3 Banshee

On Display

* Serial 1364 -

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

* Serial 3088 -

City of Norwich Aviation Museum The City of Norwich Aviation Museum is a volunteer-run museum and charitable trust dedicated to the preservation of the aviation history of the county of Norfolk, England. The museum is located on the northern edge of Norwich International ...

References

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Banshee A banshee ( ; Modern Irish , from sga, ben síde , "woman of the fairy mound" or "fairy woman") is a female spirit in Irish folklore who heralds the death of a family member, usually by screaming, wailing, shrieking, or keening. Her name is c ...

1980s British special-purpose aircraft Target drones of the United Kingdom Single-engined pusher aircraft Wankel-engined aircraft Tailless delta-wing aircraft