Flying Bomb,America's WWI Cruise Missile

[hesham]

Hi,

here is a strange and unknown flying bomb (for me) from America,all details
are here;

http://gizmodo.com/this-flying-bomb-failure-was-americas-wwi-cruise-missi-1184824802

 

[windswords]

Wow. That's what I like about coming here. You learn something new everyday.

Happy New Year everyone!

 

[Jos Heyman]

Thanks to Hesham for finding this article.
As a consequence I went to the book United States Naval Aviation 1910-1980 (published by US Govt Printing Office, 1981) and found the following references in the chronological report:

(p.9) 30 August 1913: A Sperry gyroscopic stabilizer (automatic pilot) was flight tested in the C-2 Curtiss flying boat by Lt (jg) P.N.L. Bellinger at Hammondsport, NY.

(p.15) 12 September 1916: A demonstration of guided missile equipment - a piloted hydroaeroplane equipped with automatic stabilization and direction gear developed by the Sperry Company and P.C. Hewitt – was witnessed by Lt T.S. Wilkenson of the Bureau of Ordnance at Amityville, Long Island. Wilkinson reported; “The automatic control of the aeroplane is adequate and excellent. The machine left the water without difficulty, climbed to its desired height, maintained this attitude until the end of the run, when it dived sharply, and, unless controlled by the aviator, would have dived to the earth”.
(JH: There is no reference as to the type of aircraft used)

(p.25) 14 April 1917: The Navy’s first guided missile effort began when the Naval Consulting Board recommended to the Secretary of the Navy that $ 50,000 be apportioned to carry on experimental work on aerial torpedoes in the form of automatically controlled aeroplanes or aerial machines carrying high explosives.

(p.29) 10 November 1917: A Navy ‘flying bomb’, manufactured by the Curtiss Company, was delivered to the Sperry Flying Field at Copiague, Long Island, for test. Also called an aerial torpedo, the flying bomb was designed for automatic operation carrying 1,000 pounds of explosives with a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 90 miles per hour. In addition to this specially designed aircraft, N-9s were also converted for automatic operations as flying bombs that were closely related to the guided missile of today.
(JH: There were thus two different types of aircraft. Curtiss built 120 N-9s and Burgess another 60, so identifying which aircraft were used in this programme is not feasible. As far as the other type of aircraft, perhaps somebody can look it up in books on Curtiss aircraft)

(p.30) 21 November 1917: A demonstration of the Navy N-9 flying bomb at Amityville, Long Island, was witnessed by Maj. Gen. George O. Squier, USA, Chief Signal officer. Subsequently the Army established a parallel aerial torpedo project.

(p.31) 6 March 1918: An unmanned flying bomb type was successfully launched and flown for 1,000 yards at the Sperry Flying Field, Copiague, Long Island. The launch device was a falling weight type catapult.
(JH: On p.43 of this book is a tiny photo similar to the ones provided in the earlier article)

(p.34) 23 September 1918: The flywheel catapult, a forerunner of those later to be installed aboard the Lexington and Saratoga, was used successfully to launch a flying bomb at Copiague, Long Island. Development of this catapult by the Sperry Company had been undertaken in connection with the Bureau of ordinance flying bomb project.
(JH: One of the photos provided in the earlier article of the flying bomb on the top of a car, seems to be an additional test)

(p.35) 17 October 1918: A pilotless N-9 training plane, converted to an automatic flying machine, was successfully launched at Copiague, Long Island, and flew a prescribed course, although the distance gear failed to land the airplane at a pre-set range of 14,500 yards. The plane was last seen over the Bay Shore Air Station at an altitude of 4,000 feet, flying eastwards.
(JH: I do not have a record of an N-9 having been written off on 17 October 1918)

There are no further references to this project in 1919 and 1920. I did not check beyond that year.

 

[hesham]

Thank you my dears Windswords and Jos.

 

[airplane176]

(p.29) 10 November 1917: A Navy ‘flying bomb’, manufactured by the Curtiss Company, was delivered to the Sperry Flying Field at Copiague, Long Island, for test. Also called an aerial torpedo, the flying bomb was designed for automatic operation carrying 1,000 pounds of explosives with a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 90 miles per hour. In addition to this specially designed aircraft, N-9s were also converted for automatic operations as flying bombs that were closely related to the guided missile of today.
(JH: There were thus two different types of aircraft. Curtiss built 120 N-9s and Burgess another 60, so identifying which aircraft were used in this programme is not feasible. As far as the other type of aircraft, perhaps somebody can look it up in books on Curtiss aircraft)

I have looked into the subject a little. If you look at the US.Navy Individual aircraft record cards, http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/naval-aviation-history/aircraft-history-cards.html, You will see a number of entries like "Sperry Gyro Co. " for A-105. I believe that these are the ones. All that I have found are early Curtiss-built aircraft. Also see Robert Casari's monumental American Military Aircraft 1908 - 1919 for more details on the Sperry flying bomb.

Roger

 

[hesham]

Nice Info Roger,many thanks.

 

[Jos Heyman]

Airplane 176 (Roger, I presume), has pointed us to the right direction - I did not think of that. Others that have been marked on these record cards as going to Sperry are A107, A111, A113 and A118. I did not search beyond that.

The most likely explanation why the other Curtiss flying bomb aircraft did not get serials in the A series, is that the aircraft serials that we know, were issued by the Bureau of Aeronautics. The flying bomb project was undertaken by the Bureau of Ordnance and, if the flying bombs did get serials of any sort (and the emphasis is on 'if'), they would most likely have been in a separate series maintained by the Bureau of Ordnance. It is possible that the Bureau of Ordnance maintained a numerical listing of ordnance items for the purpose of having an accounting or inventory record but in my mind, it would be unrealistic to expect that such a number would have been painted on something that is going to explode anyway.

 

[airplane176]

Jos,

Also A117. The record card for A118 says " totally destroyed Oct 21, 1918". Maybe they found it after it flew away? It appears that 5 of the six were modified for radio control with the other used as a chase plane.

I also found some information here http://earlyradiohistory.us/1963hw29.htm. It adds information through 1924 and in chapter XL, the restart of Navy interest from 1936.

Lastly, See Chapter II from The Evolution of the Cruise Missile which is available online.

If someone has information on the engine of the Army "Kettering Bug", (known variously as Depalma, WBB, Willis...) I would be very interested. Even the usually very complete Aerosphere 1939 does not have even bore and stroke.

Thank you.

Roger

 

[Jos Heyman]

In the past days found the attached information on this project. Interesting is that William Trimble's book Wings For The Navy, p.187 states that Curtiss built the vehicles based on Sperry specifications. The other four age article is from the US Navy History Command website - no further date or source is given there.
Finally ctie.monash.edu/hargraves/rpav-us.html gives some further information (along with other rpv projects)

 

[hesham]

Nice Info my dear Jos.