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The G3 Target Glider has a fascinating connection with today's collaborative combat aircraft and autonomous collaborative platforms as programs developed within our lab.
Developed by the McCook Field Engineering Section, an AFRL predecessor lab organization, the G3 was an early unpiloted and unpowered air vehicle employed by the Army Air Service in the 1920s as a cost-effective means to train both aircraft gunners and fighter pilots. It was used to train fighter pilots by setting the controls to fly randomly after its release from a carrier aircraft.
What's interesting is that fighter pilot training was also the intended role for the uncrewed Fury vehicle born from AFRL’s adversary air Bandit program. The Fury design was selected by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for its Collaborative Combat Aircraft acquisition program and is now designed the YFQ-44A.
So, this very distant cousin from a century ago has a remarkable connection to the Collaborative Combat Aircraft being acquired and developed today.
Air Force Historian, Jeff Duford, joins the AFRL “Discovery to Delivery” video series to uncover the historic scope and role of AFRL’s critical research, which delivers today’s warfighting capabilities.
| Date Taken: | 01.01.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 01.09.2026 10:12 |
| Category: | Video Productions |
| Video ID: | 992278 |
| VIRIN: | 260101-O-NQ323-7596 |
| Filename: | DOD_111469192 |
| Length: | 00:01:36 |
| Location: | US |
| Downloads: | 2 |
| High-Res. Downloads: | 2 |
This work, G-3 Target Drone | AFRL Discovery to Delivery, by Keith C Lewis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
