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AMERICAN
GUIDED MISSILES
OF WORLD WAR II
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
ILLUSTRATED BY JIM LAURIER
NEW VANGUARD 283
AMERICAN GUIDED
MISSILES OF WORLD WAR II
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
ILLUSTRATED BY JIM LAURIER
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CRUISE MISSILES
The Aerial Torpedo
• Project Castor: Weary Willies
• Project Anvil
• Navy Assault Drone Programs
• Jet Bombardment Missiles
4
4
GUIDED GLIDE BOMBS
• Grapefruit and Batty: The AAF Guided Glide Bombs
• Pelican and Bat: The Navy Guided Glide Bombs
21
GUIDED VERTICAL BOMBS
• VB-1 AZON
• VB-3 Razon
34
AIR DEFENSE MISSILES
AIR-TO-AIR MISSILES
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE BALLISTIC MISSILES
ANALYSIS
FURTHER READING
41
43
45
46
47
AMERICAN GUIDED MISSILES OF
WORLD WAR II
INTRODUCTION
The development of guided missiles by the US armed forces in World War II
was cloaked in secrecy for many years. The US Navy and US Army Air
Forces developed a surprisingly wide array of guided weapons including
bombardment missiles, guided bombs, and anti-ship missiles. Many of these
programs proved to be on the bleeding edge of technology and far beyond the
state-of-the-art in 1941–45. Nevertheless, the story of US guided weapons in
World War II helps to illuminate the birth of the missile age.
CRUISE MISSILES
The Kettering Bug was the
Army’s 1917–18 attempt
to develop a cruise missile.
However, the guidance
technology of the day was far
too immature for a functional
weapon. This example is
preserved at the National
Museum of the US Air Force at
Wright Patterson AFB. (Author)
The Aerial Torpedo
The roots of American missile development can be traced back to efforts
in World War I to develop “aerial torpedoes” guided by simple gyro-based
autopilots or radio control. The Navy initiated a project in April 1917,
consisting of Elmer Sperry’s gyro system mounted in a small Glenn Curtiss
bi-plane carrying a half-ton warhead up to fifty miles. After witnessing one
of the Navy tests, the US Army Signal Corps started its Liberty Eagle aerial
torpedo program with a team consisting of Charles Kettering for the flight
controls, Childe Wills of the Ford Motor Company for the engine, and
Orville Wright for the airframe. Better known as
the Kettering Bug, flight tests began in September
1918. These programs fell victim to immature
guidance technology and a lack of funding
after the war.
Gen. Henry “Hap” Arnold’s early connection
with the Kettering Bug was the most tangible link
between the World War I and World War II missile
programs. In 1936, he was appointed assistant
Chief of the Air Corps. A remotely-piloted aircraft
was tested in 1938, leading to the revival of the
aerial torpedo concept in August 1938. After
Arnold became Chief of the Air Corps in September
1938, he outlined the requirements: a range of at
least 20 miles, sufficient accuracy to strike a target
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two miles square such as a military base or
factory, and a warhead of at least 200lb. Vega
Airplane Company proposed using its Model 40
target drone as the basis of the system. Kettering,
at the time the manager of the Research
Laboratories Division of General Motors in
Detroit, suggested a more ambitious design.
Arnold subsequently changed the requirements
in January 1940, extending the range to at least
100 miles and improving the accuracy to a half
square mile. Although the aerial torpedo would
rely on a gyroscope-based flight control system,
this would be supplemented by radio control
either from an accompanying control aircraft or
from the ground.
The War Department signed a contract for the first ten “controlled-
bombs, power-driven” from General Motors on February 18, 1941. The
project internally was called the GM A-1 or MX-53 (Materiel Experimental)
by the AAF Materiel Center at Wright Field, Ohio, though it was commonly
known as the Bug after its World War I ancestor. During these formative
years of missile technology, there was considerable interplay between the
development of radio-controlled target drones and early radio-controlled
missiles. The GM A-1 used the same radio-control system as the Culver PQ-8
target drone.
Flight tests of Kettering’s new design began at Muroc Dry Lake in
California. The initial flights were plagued with crashes, but the fourth
flight on December 8, 1941 lasted for 1 hour and 35 minutes. Based on the
tests, an improved batch of five GM A-1s was ordered in July 1942. The
second batch was fitted with an RCA SCR-549 Block 1 television camera/
transmitter to permit the operator to monitor the course of the flight. Of
the 15 A-1 powered-bomb prototypes built by General Motors, 12 were
destroyed during tests by early 1943. An AAF study concluded that at least
a hundred more units would have to be built and tested before the design
was satisfactory for serial production, requiring at least another year of
development. By this time, it was recognized that the GM A-1 powered
bomb was too small and too slow with a speed of only 200mph. As a result,
the program was terminated in August 1943.
In the meantime, the AAF had begun to consider much larger powered-
bombs by adding radio-control systems and auto-pilots to full-size aircraft.
In 1942, the AAF selected two competitors. Fleetwings built two related
aircraft, the XBQ-1A and the XBQ-2A, that were essentially identical except
for their engines. Like most large powered-bombs, they were “optionally
piloted,” meaning that they had a cockpit installed for routine flight tests.
The first and only XBQ-1A was delivered in May 1944 and crashed on its
first flight. The XBQ-2A was flown successfully, but the AAF decided that
it was too costly as an expendable weapon. The Fairchild entry was the
XB-3A, essentially a remotely-piloted version of the existing AT-21 Gunner
advanced gunnery trainer. The first of two XB-3As was not delivered until
July 1944. As will be discussed in more detail below, by this date, the AAF
had switched to the idea of expending old bombers for this mission instead
of buying custom-built controlled bombs.
The General Motors Aerial
Torpedo was a revival of
Kettering’s World War I Bug.
This is No. 12 from the second
batch of five prototypes that
were redesigned to include
a television camera in the
bathtub below the fuselage.
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