Army & Navy – Intelligent Bombs

Eighteen years to the day after he had raised the flag at the dedication of Wright Field at Dayton, 74-year-old Orville Wright returned to the scene for a preview of the Army Air Forces Fair. Great changes had been wrought.

Among the items that he and other visitors saw:

¶ Jet engines producing about twice as much power in proportion to their weight as gasoline engines.

¶ The Azon, an ordinary bomb, fitted with a radio-controlled tail surface, which can be steered to right or left by the bombardier of the plane from which it is dropped. It was used successfully in Italy and Burma.

¶ The Roc and the GB-4, bombs with built-in television transmitter and radio control. They can be steered by the directing plane from a television image which shows the target and a spot indicating the bomb’s position.

These “intelligent bombs” are limited in scope and usefulness because they have no built-in source of power, are propelled only by the speed of the plane which launches them and by gravity. The rocket-propelled bomb for the push-button war was not yet ready for unveiling. There was nothing at Dayton as futuristic, even, as last year’s German V2.