page_title: Ryan Model 147
section_title: Ryan Model 147T and 147TE/TF Combat Dawn
hierarchical_section_title: Ryan Model 147 / Operational history / Ryan Model 147T and 147TE/TF Combat Dawn
caption_attribution_description: English: HH-3E Jolly Green Giant inflight capture of an 556th Reconnaissance Squadron AQM-34 drone.
context_page_description: The Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug is a jet-powered drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle, produced and developed by Ryan Aeronautical from the earlier Ryan Firebee target drone series.
  Beginning in 1962, the Model 147 was introduced as a reconnaissance RPV for a United States Air Force project named Fire Fly. Over the next decade — assisted with secret funding from the recently formed National Reconnaissance Office along with support of the Strategic Air Command and Ryan Aeronautical's own resources — the basic Model 147 design would be developed into a diverse series of variants configured for a wide array of mission-specific roles, with multiple new systems, sensors and payloads used, modified and improved upon during the operational deployment of these drones in Southeast Asia. Missions performed by the Model 147 series RPVs included high- and low-altitude photographic and electronic aerial reconnaissance, surveillance, decoy, electronic warfare, signals intelligence, and psychological warfare.
  The Ryan drones were designed without landing gear for simplicity and to save weight.
context_section_description: By 1968 most of the Lightning Bug missions were low-altitude flights; yet the Air Force still regarded the high-altitude mission as important enough to obtain a refined version of the Model 147H, the Model 147T. Its main improvement was a more powerful engine, the Teledyne CAE J100-CA-100 with 2,800 pounds of thrust (1,270 kgp) which allowed the drone to operate at higher altitudes up to almost 75,000 feet (23 km). The initial 147T mission was flown in April 1969 but overall frequency of high-altitude reconnaissance missions continued to decline, with the last Model 147T missions over Southeast Asia performed during June 1971.
  Despite the general decline in high-altitude reconnaissance RPV use, new mission roles would emerge. In April 1969 a Lockheed EC-121 Super Constellation SIGINT aircraft was shot down in international airspace by North Korean fighters, killing all 31 crew members on the aircraft. This incident led to consideration of using an unmanned drone to do the SIGINT job, resulting in the Model 147TE or Combat Dawn RPV. The Model 147TE's first operational flight was in February 1970, although this flight and those that followed over two months were really just evaluation tests. The tests proved successful and an order for fifteen production Model 147TE drones followed, with the first operational flight of a production 147TE in October 1970.
  The Model 147TEs did not overfly hostile airspace; they stayed well out to sea at relatively high altitude, or cruised along the border between North and South Korea. They could fly under their own guidance or be controlled by their DC-130 launch aircraft. The drones relayed SIGINT data over a data link to ground stations for analysis. This data link technology would be developed for use in other reconnaissance aircraft, such as the Lockheed U-2 and the Beechcraft RC-12 Guardrail.
  Late in the Model 147TE program, underwing external tanks were added to improve time on-station from five to eight hours. In 1973 an updated version, the Model 147TF, with external tanks as standard and improved SIGINT gear went into operation. Almost 500 missions were flown by Model 147TE and 147TF Combat Dawn RPVs between 1970 and 1975.
caption: Sikorsky CH-3E inflight capture of a 556th Reconnaissance Squadron AQM-34R (Ryan Model 147TF) Combat Dawn RPV.
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