UK Old RPV and Target Drones

[hesham]

Hi,

in the book,Teach for the Sky,the company Air Service Training designed C.4 as a
target drone,is there any more Info and drawing to it ?.

 

[Apophenia]

in the book,Teach for the Sky,the company Air Service Training designed C.4 as a target drone,is there any more Info and drawing to it ?.

According to British Aviation, the AST C.4 was the design basis for the production IMA TG.II Mk.2 target glider. Alas, I can't find an image for that International Model Aircraft glider either

-- http://www.britishaviation-ptp.com/b/brooklands.html

BTW: International Model Aircraft Ltd. was the maker of FROG flying models (later better-known for the Frog range of plastic scale model kits).

 

[hesham]

Thank you Apophenia,

and that means it was C 1 to 3 ?.

From JAWA 1978.

 

[alertken]

Air Britain's Sitting Ducks, M.Draper,2011, P.88 | (AST C4), P.76 seq (IMA Winged Gliders), P.338 (AEL 4111 Snipe) tells us more than we can digest. No link between them.

 

[hesham]

Air Britain's Sitting Ducks, M.Draper,2011, P.88 | (AST C4), P.76 seq (IMA Winged Gliders), P.338 (AEL 4111 Snipe) tells us more than we can digest. No link between them.

I know that very well,it's another subject,I send it due to the main topic title incommon.

 

[alertken]

not having a pop at H: apo #2 misread his ptp link: it was Brooklands Avn High Speed Towed Target that was AST C4. Brooklands also built many IMA TG.Mk.2.

Dreary target work has been of UK industrial significance - Fairey, Meggitt, Qinetiq (try: £308Mn, 2006, to run our ranges for 20 years, so they bought Megitt's target business, 2012).

 

[Aubi]

Akshully QinetiQ bought Meggitt Defence Systems in 2016.
Does anybody have any info when and how Meggitt acquired the Snipe? i don't have access to aforementioned book. AEL was bought in 1995 by Flight Refuelling/Cobham and dissolved in 2013, so I'd expect them to manufacture it, yet Snipe Mk.15 is in Meggitt's catalogue already in 2009...

 

[alertken]

aubi: correct, I misspoke: 21/12/16, MDS to QQ. Sitting Ducks has no date for Meggitt's acquisition of AEL, but P.338 has: "Meggitt introduced the (Snipe) Mk.4/5 and14 (which) entered service 4/89", which conflicts with your 2009 and with the Br.Avn ptp site, which has AEL to Meggitt 18/5/95 then as FR Targets Ltd.. We are allowed to be confused. Confusion includes the Wimborne, Dorset bases of Meggitt and FRL, who had the Falconet target in 1983, when 2 ex-FRL Seniors moved to grow Meggitt into Aerospace.

Who has early Janes UAVs?

 

[Aubi]

AEL, or as it was know at the time Snipe International, was definitely acquired by Cobham, not Meggitt, in 1995. Logic - why would Meggitt renamed the company after a different company? Cobham plc was until 1994 FR Group and still operated the original Flight Refuelling Ltd. as a subsidiary. But Jane's UAV 2005 report Snipe MK.15 as a Meggitt Defence Systems product. MDS itself was until 1998 known as Target Technology Ltd., then it was bought by Meggitt Ltd. and renamed. I did not find on any Meggitt-related site any mention of any of the two Meggitts buying Flight Refuelling Targets or buying any production rights from it.
BTW company infos:
Target Technology/Meggitt Defence Systems/QinetiQ Target Systems

QINETIQ TARGET SYSTEMS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

QINETIQ TARGET SYSTEMS LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

And all my info about it (Jane's Aircraft 1984 confirms that it existed before 1984 as Piper-Target Systems but it's not mentioned in previous years):

QinetiQ Target Systems Ltd. [2016- ] : Průmysl

www.valka.cz

Aero Electronics Ltd/AEL/Flight Refuelling Targets

FLIGHT REFUELLING TARGETS LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

FLIGHT REFUELLING TARGETS LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

Ignore the Henfield part, there was some economic trickery involved but there was a company called Aero Electronics Ltd based on the same adress at least since 1962, and 1978-1985 Jane's Aircraft confirms that it manufactured drones. That one got the Br.Avn sitre right, but it is mistaken about th 1995 part.

Funnily enough, there was a third drone company in the 1990s, the venerable ML Aviation, which was in 1997 also bought by Cobham but kepts its name... Until 2020, when Cobham renamed it to Flight Refuelling Ltd! The original FR was a year before renamed as Cobham Mission Systems Wimborne (and then maybe sold away) so the name was free to use or something.

MISSION SYSTEMS WIMBORNE LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK

MISSION SYSTEMS WIMBORNE LIMITED - Free company information from Companies House including registered office address, filing history, accounts, annual return, officers, charges, business activity

find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

 

[hesham]

From, Rivista_marittima 1953.