1918 RAE study into glidebombs

[PMN1]

Not a missile but not an aircraft either....

On Page 90 of British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles, it mentions

'The RAE had studied a glide bomb with a 250lb warhead as far back as 1918, but the end of the Great War saw that project put on ice'.

How did they hope to achieve any kind of accuracy and does anyone have any other information on this?

 

[Jemiba]

The solution may have been the same, as proposed for the Miles Hoop-la from 1940:
Attacking area targets with masses of weapons, instead of trying in vain to achieve
pin point accuracy. A given bearing and a given range are quite sufficient then, no
need for accuracy ...
Or they simply copied the german Siemens-Schuckert torpedo glider from 1915, which
was wire controlled, but the best range achieved with this model was 7,6 km, after
release from about 1200m, as far as I know .

 

[CJGibson]

The RAE glide bomb from July 1918 was unguided, carried a 250lb bomb and led, indirectly, to the Burney Toraplane of the 1930s. It was not pursued after the war and was totally unrelated to any other design. It had a gliding angle of 1 in 5 and kept on course by a gyro rudder.

More details can be found in Air Britain Aeromilitaria Winter 2004.

KB