Long before UAVs dominated the skies, the Ryan Firebee was pushing boundaries as one of the earliest and most advanced jet-powered drones. From Cold War surveillance to live-fire training ...

The first Firebee prototype delivered in 1951 was known as the XQ-2. These 22-foot-long pilotless drones were powered by a 1,060 pound-thrust Continental J69-T-19B turbojet engine providing a top ...

As well as photographic and infra-red cameras, it could be fitted with ... a technique already in use by then in Firebee drone operations over Vietnam. Intriguingly, the documents also reveal ...

"Vietnam-era Firebee drones [flew] over Baghdad to drop radar-jamming chaff and, until they ran out of fuel, to circle the city as decoys to draw anti-aircraft fire away from coalition strike ...

Yup, this 1972 film clip shows C-130-launched BQM-34 Firebee drones (first developed in the early 1950s) firing an AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missile and an AGM-45 Shrike anti-radar missile.