Original vintage 1964 Beech Aerospace Division advertisement for the company's range of missile target systems - "Now, What's Beyond Mach 7?  Beech 'Imaginuity' in Missile Systems is Finding Out"
 
Dimensions: Approx. 16.25 inches wide by 11 inches high - this is a two-page advert.
 
"Beech 'Imaginuity; in Missile Systems.  How fast will tomorrow's missile target systems need to be?  The answer: just as fast as the speediest enemy hardware - jets or missiles - that Free World gunners may have to shoot at.  What will it take to provide these advanced missile systems...to turn 'impossible' requirements into solid reality by the time they are needed?"
 
Beech Aerospace Division
Now known as Beechcraft, Beech is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas.  Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviation, commercial, and military aircraft, ranging from light single-engined aircraft to twin-engined turboprop transports, business jets, and military trainers.  Beech later became a division of Raytheon and then Hawker Beechcraft before a bankruptcy sale turned its assets over to Textron (parent company of Beech's historical cross-town Wichita rival, Cessna Aircraft Company).  It remains a brand of Textron Aviation.
 
Beech Aircraft Corporation produced essential training, transport, and reconnaissance aircraft during the Cold War.  Key models included the T-34 Mentor primary trainer, the C-45 Expeditor utility transport, and the secret QU-22B used in Vietnam.  Walter Beech led the company until 1950, when his wife, Olive Ann Beech, took over.
 
During the Cold War, Beech’s Aerospace Division was quite active vis-à-vis Department of Defense contracts, in the areas of research and development, propulsion, outer space simulation, and – the subject of this advert here – missile target systems.
 
Missile target systems are specialized, unarmed vehicles used to simulate enemy threats.  They mimic the speed, shape, and flight path of real weapons like ballistic or cruise missiles.  Militaries uses these systems to test new defense systems, and the practice runs ensure interceptors and radars work perfectly in real combat.
 
The Secretive QU-22B
The QU-22B was to be an unmanned airborne relay for the Igloo White operation during the Viet Nam war.  Igloo White placed and monitored sensors to detect traffic along the main enemy supply line, the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Modified from the civilian Beech Model 36 Bonanza under the Pave Eagle II program, the 27 QU-22Bs delivered to the U.S. Air Force contained several changes for military service.  The QU-22B carried a large generator above the engine to power its electronic equipment and additional fuel in extended wing tip tanks for increased range.  Its remote-control equipment allowed the QU-22B to be flown directly by an onboard pilot or as an unmanned drone.

In 1970 a detachment of the 553rd Reconnaissance Wing (later the 554th Reconnaissance Squadron) known as the "Vampires," conducted the first operational QU-22B flights.  During a typical mission, the QU-22B orbited near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, picking up signals from Igloo White acoustic and vibration sensing ground units and relaying them to the Information Surveillance Center (or "Task Force Alpha") at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base.

Although the QU-22B performed well as a signal relay, all operational flights in Southeast Asia carried a pilot onboard due to equipment reliability problems.  In 1972, after the loss of several aircraft, the USAF cancelled the QU-22 program. The museum's QU-22B went on display in 2002.
 
Beech History
Beech Aircraft Company was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932 and the company began operations in an idle Cessna factory.  With designer Ted Wells, they developed the first aircraft under the Beechcraft name, the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing, which flew in November 1932.  Over 750 Staggerwings were built, including 352 for the United States Army Air Forces and 67 for the United States Navy during World War II.
 
In 1994, Raytheon merged Beechcraft with the Hawker product line it had acquired in 1993 from British Aerospace, forming Raytheon Aircraft Company.  In 2002, the Beechcraft brand was revived to again designate the Wichita-produced aircraft, and in 2006, Raytheon sold Raytheon Aircraft to Goldman Sachs creating Hawker Beechcraft.  Since its inception Beechcraft has resided in Wichita, Kansas, also the home of chief competitors Cessna, Stearman and Learjet.  Throughout much of the mid-to-late 20th century, Beechcraft was one of the "Big Three" in the field of general aviation manufacturing, along with Cessna and Piper.
 
The bankruptcy of Hawker Beechcraft in 2012 resulted in its reemergence in 2013 as a new entity, Beechcraft Corporation, with the Hawker Beechcraft name being retired.  The new and much smaller company produces the King Air line of aircraft, the T-6/AT-6 military trainer/attack aircraft, as well as the single-engined Bonanza and twin-engined Baron.  The jet line was discontinued, but the new company continues to support aircraft already produced.
 
On late 2013, Textron purchased Beechcraft, including the discontinued Hawker jet line, for $1.4 billion.  The sale was concluded in the first half of 2014, with government approval.  Textron said that Beechcraft and Cessna would be combined to form a new light aircraft manufacturing concern, Textron Aviation, that would result in $65-85 million in annual savings over keeping the companies separate. Textron has kept both the Beechcraft and Cessna names as separate brands.