Royal Artillery PPIF Drone Section Land Rover
Royal Artillery Portable Photographic Interpretation Facility (PPIF) Land Rover 25 FG 73: a Series IIA 109 with a tall box body carried forward into a square, mesh-fronted Luton over the cab and equipment boxes on the roof, attached to the Midge drone sections of Observation Post batteries to process the drones' reconnaissance film.
History
The Canadair CL-89 Midge was the British Army's first battlefield reconnaissance drone, a rocket-launched, parachute-recovered aircraft carrying cameras and sensors that flew a pre-programmed course over the enemy and returned to its launch unit. Each Royal Artillery Observation Post battery's drone section needed to process and read the film within minutes of recovery, and for that the Army built a small number of Portable Photographic Interpretation Facility (PPIF) bodies on the Series IIA 109-inch chassis.
25 FG 73 shows the arrangement: the tall, square-cornered box body of the period ambulance and command-vehicle family, extended forward over the cab into a big Luton with a mesh-fronted vent panel, extra ventilation and equipment boxes on the roof for the darkroom and viewing kit inside, a spare wheel on the bonnet and a matching trailer behind. The registry model takes the ambulance body, drops its medical markings and beacon, and adds the Luton, roof boxes and plate as photographed; the trailer is not modelled.
Imagery
Registry record
- Manufacturer
- Land Rover (Series III 109) with specialist box body
- Manufactured
- Midge drone service period (approximate)
- Modifier / coachbuilder
- British Army / Royal Artillery (PPIF fit)
- Engine type
- Rover 2.25 L petrol (not stated in the source)
- Production run
- unknown
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Operated in
- United Kingdom
- Status
- historic
Catalogue data
- Record kind
- Named model
- Model line
- Series III
- Wheels
- 4
- Nominal wheelbase
- 109″
Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.
Sources & citations
Researched sources
- Land Rover Series group post — Midge drone PPIF 25 FG 73 (book page photograph) ↗ — Facebook (Land Rover Series group) (accessed 2026-09-12)
Catalogue references
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/331093056932865/posts/37058052763810098/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/331093056932865/posts/37058052763810098/ ↗
Registry record updated 2026-09-12T03:40:57.551Z · status: researched