According to some Air Service Technical Command documents I have read, the technology for the "Abusive" or "Weary Willie" drone program was originally demonstrated on the YPQ-12A --
"The possible accuracy of this system was demonstrated in October
1943 when a YPQ-12A airplane, equipped with the inferior Block 1 television
equipment, was expended against a 30 foot square target. The point
of impact was only 30 feet from the target."
The Block 1 television system on the YPQ-12A airplane came from the US Navy's TDR-1 program.
The TDR-1 guidance system was the basis of the PB4Y-1 Liberator drone that U.S.N. special air unit, codenamed Project Anvil, prepared for Joseph Kennedy Jr to fly in 1944.
See:
http://www.aviationmuseum.net/Joe_Kennedy.htm
http://www.mugualumni.org/secretarsenal/page9.html
http://www.vectorsite.net/twcruz_1.html
After Project Anvil literally blew up in the US Navy's face during the Operation Crossbow hunt for German V-1 Buzz Bomb sites (killing Joseph Kennedy Jr in the process) it abandoned the TDR-1 guidance technology to the USAAF.
The USAAF then replaced the "Double Azon" system cobbled together by the 8th Air Force and proceeded with the "Weary Willie" program using the superior TDR-1 TV guidance system, AKA "Castor".
See --
http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_bombers/b17_14.html
Just before the end of WW2, the "Weary Willie" program was renamed the "Abusive" program. This utterly confused post-war histories as most immediate unclassified post WW2 documents did not include the "Abusive" code words and no one publishing later WW2 histories has bothered to look up the declassified "Abusive" documents decades later.
The Weary Wille & Abusive code word equivalents work out as follows:
Control plane CBQ-17 was the "Willie Mother" under the "Weary Willie" code word and "Bluefish" under the "Abusive" code word.
The B-17 missile XBQ7 or B-24 missile XBQ8 without TV guidance was was known as "Willie Baby" under the "Weary Willie" code word and was "Cottongrass" under the "Abusive" code word. Either name refered to an area target/buzz bomb equivalent that came in three different versions with preset guidance, some or complete ground control by a SCR-584 gunlaying radar.
The same B-17 & B-24 missiles with TV guidance were "Willie Orphan" and "Corticated" under the respective "Weary Willie" and "Abusive" code words. These also came in three versions with a CBQ-17 mother ship and varying degrees of TV and radar beacon guidance.
