“Unveiling the Secrets: How Innovations in Technology are Redefining the Future of Precision Weaponry”
Before ending this video, it is worth mentioning one of the strangest chapters in the history of guided weapons: Project Pigeon. In 1942, behaviourist B.F. Skinner – most famous for developing the principle of operant conditioning – began studying the feasibility of guiding a missile using – you guessed it, pigeons. Skinnerâs concept involved training pigeons to recognize and peck at images of enemy ships. They would then be placed in a special compartment in the nose of a missile with an electrically-conductive screen on which was projected images from a television camera. A guidance system would sense the pigeonâs pecks and use them to adjust the missileâ trajectory and keep the target image in the centre of the screen, guiding the missile all the way to impact. Incredibly, ground-based simulations proved that the system was workable, and Skinner tried to convince the Navy to try it out in a Pelican missile. However, Naval officials dismissed the whole concept as impractical and outlandish, and Project Pigeon was never deployed in combat.
Expand for References
King, J.B. & Batchelor, John, German Secret Weapons, BPC Publishing Ltd, 1974
Hogg, Ian & Batchelor, John, Allied Secret Weapons, BPC Publishing Ltd, 1975
Johnson, Brian, The Secret War, Arrow Books Ltd, London, 1978
Frantiska, Joseph, The Azimuth âSmartâ Bombs of World War II, Warfare History Network, December 12, 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20170505064546/http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-azimuth-smart-bombs-of-world-war-ii/
The GB 1 Glide Bomb, https://web.archive.org/web/20080213211708/http://www.1jma.dk/articles/1jmaglidebombs.htm
Guided German Air to Ground Weapons in WW2, https://web.archive.org/web/20080215223114/http://www.1jma.dk/articles/1jmaluftwaffegroundweapons.htm
Parsch, Andreas, GB Series, Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, 2003, http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/gb.html
Gargoyle Missile, Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, https://web.archive.org/web/20190721100526/https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/missile-air-surface-gargoyle
Parsch, Andreas, McDonnell LBD/KSD/KUD/RTV-N-2 Gargoyle, Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, 2003, http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/rtv-n-2.html
Parsch, Andreas, Bureau of Standards SWOD MK 9/ASM-N-2 Bat, Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, 2003, http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app1/asm-n-2.html
Giving New Wings to an Old Bat, NIST, https://www.nist.gov/nist-time-capsule/any-object-any-need-call-nist/giving-new-wings-old-bat
Hitlerâs Precision-Guided Bombs: Fritz X & Hs 293, National WWII Museum, September 21, 2023, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/hitlers-precision-guided-bombs-fritz-x-hs-293
How Radio-Controlled Bombs Were Jammed, Lone Sentry Blog, September 19, 2010, http://www.lonesentry.com/blog/how-radio-controlled-bombs-were-jammed.html
The post Creating the Smart Bomb appeared first on Today I Found Out.
