The statistics speak to its remarkable reliability: 83 percent of the Firebees flown during the Vietnam War returned to fly again. Variants proliferated to meet every mission need — high-altitude photo reconnaissance (Model 147B), low-level penetration (AQM-34L), electronic intelligence (AQM-34Q), and even propaganda leaflet dropping (AQM-34H, nicknamed the "Bullshit Bomber"). When manned reconnaissance aircraft proved vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles, the Lightning Bug filled the gap, proving that unmanned systems could operate where human pilots could not. Yet for all its success, the program was shuttered in 1979, its drones consigned to storage, as the Air Force turned its attention elsewhere. The lessons of Vietnam, however, would not be forgotten.