Canadair CL - 89 The Canadair CL - 89 is a surveillance drone ( UAV ) produced jointly by Canada , Britain and West Germany in the 1960s . It was later redesigned and improved , and redesignated the CL - 289 . History . CL - 89 . In June 1963 , a sponsorship by Canada and Britain agreed to have Canadair design , evaluate and test the CL - 89 drone . The concept had been developed at Canadair from the CL - 85 , a study for the carriage of dispatches . West Germany later joined the group , and although the USA was invited to join , they declined . The first , less than successful flight was made at Yuma , Arizona in March 1964 . The British wanted changes in the system ( consisting of the drone , the launcher , the retrieval equipment and the support ) to be " Soldier Proof " . They sent an army officer to Canadair and with his help set up a maintenance advisory group which had excellent results . CL - 89 had a difficult development and was almost abandoned . The first complete CL - 89 system was supplied to the West Germans in 1969 . During the 1970s , Both France and Italy joined the British and West Germans in operating the CL - 89 . NATO gave the entire system the designation AN / USD - 501 ; in UK service it was known as the Midge . The system was designed for information collecting at a divisional level . In Royal Artillery service Midge was operated by a troop in a divisional locating battery . This troop had two launchers , all the facilities for processing and analysing imagery and for repair and servicing of the aircraft , the troop comprised 2 officers and about 70 soldiers . Tasking was through the artillery intelligence cell at divisional HQ and the primary use was to confirm suspected enemy locations , particularly hostile artillery . In UK service Midge replaced the Northrop Radioplane SD - 1 , known in service as " Observer " , and was replaced in turn by Phoenix . Midge was used operationally in Kuwait in 1991 . In German Army service CL - 89 was operated by a battery in the divisional observation battalion . The organisation was similar to the British but had 6 officers and about 120 soldiers . Logistic support for CL - 89 was provided to user nations through NAMSA . CL - 289 . In November 1987 , an agreement was signed between Canada , West Germany and France for the production of the CL - 289 system . The design of this was started in 1974 . It was a larger drone with better range and payload than the CL - 89 . It was intended to obtain Corps level intelligence for the armies of NATO . Although similar in appearance to the CL - 89 , many changes in design were necessary . The CL - 289 entered service in November 1990 , the entire system being designated AN / USD - 502 . Description . Although both drones had the appearance of missiles , they flew like aircraft and were launched from ' rails ' on trucks . They had four large surfaces at the rear of the fuselage with balance control provided by small stabilizers in the nose . Take - off was achieved by a booster rocket , which was jettisoned when flight speed was attained . A small turbojet then took over for the rest of the flight The flight pattern was programmed and allowed for the flight to the target areas , a run while the cameras or sensors recorded , and the return to the recovery site . On arrival at this calculated position , the motor cut and a drogue parachute was deployed . This slowed the drone down sufficiently to alter its attitude and allowing a parachute to be released from the underside of the drone causing it to invert . Before reaching the ground a pair of pneumatic landing bags were released from the top of the drone ( now facing the ground ) . The retrieval crew would then remove the cameras etc . , and return the drone to be ready for its next flight . A camera or sensor , dependent on the mission , could be fitted to the CL - 89 , and multiple units to the CL - 289 . Being a drone meant that it flew a programmed course and was not under any form of external control . In CL - 89 the programmed flight path was constrained by the very limited number of ' events ' that could be programmed . These events including turns , changes in altitude , sensor activations / de - activations and landing . The programmed flightpath had to be corrected for meteorological conditions . Data for this was provided by a standard artillery Target Acquisition meteor message . Two types of sensors were used with CL - 89 , both using photographic film that was processed and analysed after the drone was recovered . Standard black and white film was normally used in daylight , with flares available for night use . Infra - red linescan , an early form of thermal imaging was generally used at night . Three types of sensors were used with the British Drone Troops , Vinten ( day sensor ) Zeiss ( day and night ) and IRLS ( day and night ) .