The Canadair CL-89 is a surveillance drone (UAV) produced jointly by Canada, Britain and West Germany in the 1960s.

In June 1963, a sponsorship by Canada and Britain[1][2] agreed to have Canadair design, evaluate and test the CL-89 drone.

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.

NATO gave the entire system the designation AN/USD-501 (Army Navy Unmanned Surveillance Drone type 501); in UK service it was known as the Midge (Military Intelligence & Data Gathering Equipment).

This troop had two launchers, all the facilities for processing and analysing imagery and for repair and servicing of the aircraft.

In November 1987, an agreement was signed between Canada, West Germany and France for the production of the CL-289 system.

The cylindrical body had four stub-wings at the rear of the fuselage, with aerodynamic trim provided by smaller canard foreplanes.

Although the drone looked and flew like a missile and was launched from truck-mounted rails, it cruised under jet power.