The AAI RQ-7 Shadow is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used by the United States Army, Australian Army, Swedish Army, Turkish Air Force and Italian Army for reconnaissance, surveillance, target acquisition and battle damage assessment. Launched from a trailer-mounted pneumatic catapult, it is recovered with the aid of arresting gear similar to jets on an aircraft carrier. Its gimbal-mounted, digitally stabilized, liquid nitrogen-cooled electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) camera relays video in real time via a C-band line-of-sight data link to the ground control station (GCS).
The Alliant RQ-6 Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was designed to provide near-real-time reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition information to United States Marine Corps air/ground task forces, United States Army brigades, and deployed United States Navy units that was small enough for an entire system to be contained on two Humvees and trailer and transported on a single C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft.
The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, high-altitude, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft developed and manufactured by the American aerospace company Lockheed Corporation. It was operated by both the United States Air Force (USAF) and NASA.
The SAGEM Sperwer is an unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by the French firm SAGEM. The aircraft is piloted remotely and can cruise at altitudes of over 16,000 feet for as long as five hours. It can send back images of targets up to 150 kilometers from its operators on the ground.
The Dassault nEUROn is an experimental unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) being developed with international cooperation, led by the French company Dassault Aviation. Countries involved in this project include France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The design goal is to create a stealthy, autonomous UAV that can function in medium-to high-threat combat zones. Comparable projects include the British BAE Systems Taranis, German/Spanish EADS Barracuda, American Boeing X-45 and Northrop Grumman X-47B, the Indian DRDO AURA, and the Russian Mikoyan Skat and Sukhoi Okhotnik.
The Bell Helicopter Eagle Eye, Model 918, was an American tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle that was offered as one of the competitors in the United States Navy's VT-UAV program.
In aerodynamics, the critical Mach number of an aircraft is the lowest Mach number at which the airflow over some point of the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, but does not exceed it. At the lower critical Mach number, airflow around the entire aircraft is subsonic. Supersonic aircraft such as Concorde and combat aircraft also have an upper critical Mach number at which the airflow around the entire aircraft is supersonic.
SAGEM was a major French company involved in defense electronics, consumer electronics and communication systems.
The Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic is a long-range maritime patrol aircraft designed and manufactured by French aircraft manufacturer Breguet Aviation.
The Fairey Delta 2 or FD2 was a British supersonic research aircraft produced by the Fairey Aviation Company in response to a specification from the Ministry of Supply for a specialised aircraft for conducting investigations into flight and control at transonic and supersonic speeds. Features included a delta wing and a drooped nose. On 6 October 1954, the Delta 2 made its maiden flight, flown by Fairey test pilot Peter Twiss; two aircraft would be produced. The Delta 2 was the final aircraft to be produced by Fairey as an independent manufacturer.
A supersonic aircraft is an aircraft capable of supersonic flight, which is an aircraft able to fly faster than the speed of sound. Supersonic aircraft were developed in the second half of the twentieth century. Supersonic aircraft have been used for research and military purposes, but only two supersonic aircraft, the Tupolev Tu-144 and the Concorde, ever entered service for civil use as airliners. Fighter jets are the most common example of supersonic aircraft.
The Dassault Falcon 900, commonly abbreviated as the F900, is a French-built corporate trijet aircraft made by Dassault Aviation.
The history of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) is closely tied to the general history of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The Dassault Mirage IIIV, also spelled Mirage III V, was a French vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) prototype fighter aircraft of the mid-1960s developed and produced by Dassault Aviation.
The EADS Barracuda is a jet powered European unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) currently under development by EADS, intended for the role of aerial reconnaissance and also combat (UCAV). The aircraft is a joint venture between Germany and Spain.
The Dassault LOGIDUC – sometimes spelled Logiduc in French and LogiDuc in English – was an autonomous industrial program launched in 1999 by the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation in view to develop its UAV design capacities. This French programme eventually led to the creation of the Dassault-Sagem Tactical UAV company and to the European "combat drone" project nEUROn.
The Dassault AVE-D Petit Duc was a sub-scale experimental stealth UAV built in France in 2000 as the first step in the development of a UCAV under Dassault Aviation's LOGIDUC programme. AVE-D stands for Aéoronef de Validation Expérimentale - Discrétion, and petit duc is the French name for the Eurasian scops-owl, but also a wordplay on the LOGIDUC programme name, with petit meaning "small". The early prototypes were manufactured by French subcontractor Aviation Design while the other units were all built by Dassault itself.
The Dassault AVE-C Moyen Duc was a sub-scale experimental stealth UAV built in France in 2004 as a step in the development of a UCAV under Dassault Aviation's LOGIDUC programme. AVE-C stands for Aéronef de Validation Expérimentale - Contrôle, and Moyen Duc is the French name for the long-eared owl, but also a wordplay on the LOGIDUC programme name, with moyen meaning "middle". As the AVE-D was designed by Dassault according to a rapid prototyping to cost methodology, the AVE-C was developed and completed within a year and the first prototype was produced in July 2001.
The Dassault Falcon 6X is a large, long-range business jet under development by Dassault Aviation in France.
