The Compass Cope program began in July 1971, midway through the Compass Dwell program, with a contract to Boeing for two prototype UAVs, later designated as the YQM-94. The requirements for the two programs were very similar, but with the National Security Agency contributing to Cope's funding, its intent was clearly focused on developing a HALE platform for signals intelligence collection. Mirroring the history of the Dwell effort, a competing Cope award was made well after the first was underway. The Boeing YQM-94 Gull, or Cope-B (for Boeing), first flew in July 1973 and, unlike the first Dwell prototype, crashed on its second instead of its third flight that August. The 15-month hiatus until Boeing's second prototype was ready to fly allowed the competing Teledyne Ryan YQM-98 Tern, also know as the Cope-R (for Ryan), to catch up. It first flew in August 1974, three months before the resumption of Boeing testing. On its fifth and final evaluation flight at Edwards AFB that November, it set a new endurance record of 28 h and 11 min, beating the Dwell record by 17 min. The evaluation of the Cope-B ended that same month, with the Cope-B demonstrating an endurance of just over 17 h. Cope-R was then airlifted to Patrick AFB, Florida, where it underwent a second round of evaluation during 12 flights from May to September 1975, one aircraft being lost during a night landing. The following August the Air Force selected Boeing to build three preproduction Cope...