The MQM-42 was a supersonic

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 operational ...

developed by North American Aviation (from 1967

North American Rockwell North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

). Developed in two subvariants, Redhead and Roadrunner, it was used by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

in the 1960s and 1970s.

Design and development

Given the company designation NA-273, the Redhead/Roadrunner drone program produced a small aircraft of largely conventional design, with small delta wings and a downswept tailplane; the

vertical stabilizer A vertical stabilizer or tail fin is the static part of the vertical tail of an aircraft. The term is commonly applied to the assembly of both this fixed surface and one or more movable rudders hinged to it. Their role is to provide control, s ...

doubled as a pylon for the aircraft's

ramjet A ramjet, or athodyd (aero thermodynamic duct), is a form of airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to produce thrust. Since it produces no thrust when stationary (no ram air) ramjet-powered vehicles require an as ...

engine. A

solid-propellant rocket A solid-propellant rocket or solid rocket is a rocket with a rocket engine that uses solid propellants ( fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used in warfare by the Arabs, Chinese, Persia ...

provided thrust until the ramjet reached operating speed; launch was from the same launcher as that used by the

MGR-3 Little John The MGR-3 Little John was a free flight artillery rocket system designed and put into service by the U.S. Army during the 1950s and 1960s. Description Carried on the XM34 rocket launcher, it could carry either nuclear or conventional warhea ...

battlefield rocket.''Jane's'' 1965-1966, p. 455. Two minor variants of the drone were produced; 'Redhead' was optimized for high-altitude flight, at heights of up to , while 'Roadrunner' was a variant for low-altitude operation as low as above the ground, and both could reach speeds of between Mach 0.9 and Mach 2. An

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

, set to maintain a preset altitude, provided control of the drone;

radio command guidance Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its P ...

from a ground control station could override the autopilot. At the end of a flight, if the target drone had not been shot down, recovery could be either on command from the ground station, or automatic in case of fuel exhaustion or loss of control; a

retrorocket A retrorocket (short for ''retrograde rocket'') is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a vehicle, thereby causing it to decelerate. They have mostly been used in spacecraft, with more limited use in short-runway aircraft land ...

would decelerate the drone to allow for deployment of a recovery parachute.Parsch 2007

Operational history

First flight of the NA-273 took place in 1961; in 1963, the designation MQM-42A was applied to both variants. The MQM-42 was used primarily to provide training in tracking and engaging targets for the MIM-23 Hawk surface-to-air missile;Haggerty 1968, p. 185. it remained in service with the United States Army through the mid-1970s.

Specifications (MQM-42A)

References

Citations

Bibliography