Almost a Boffin by E.E.Vielle

Author:E.E.Vielle
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909204164
Publisher: Dolman Scott Ltd
Published: 2013-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Las Vegas from the Air

The guided bombs I tested were of various varieties. The first was AZON, which was so named because it could be controlled in AZimuth ONly. Lying in the nose of a B24 and using a normal bombsight to line up on the target, I released one from a height of about 10,000 feet. It looked like a normal bomb, but had larger fins on the tail and the pilot had to continue flying the aircraft on a dead straight line, while I, using a small control stick, could move the fins on the tail of the bomb to make it go left or right. It worked, and it landed nearer the target than it would otherwise have done.

That, I believe, was one of the first successful tests ever made of a guided bomb – the forerunner of the laser-guided bombs used today. But it had three grave disadvantages. The aircraft had not only to make the usual long straight run-up to the bomb release point, but then had to continue flying straight until the bomb landed – giving the crew even less chance of surviving enemy gunfire; it gave no greater accuracy as regard distance; and it needed clear weather conditions. The addition of further fins to enable the bomb aimer to control distance was impractical because, once the bomb has been dropped, it appears to fall way behind the aircraft, thus preventing the bomb aimer from judging that distance. Its main use, therefore, was for attacking a long straight target, like a bridge, road or railway line – preferably not in range of enemy anti-aircraft guns.

During the next few months I tested several further developments of Guided Missiles – GB4, GB6, GB8, etc – and, together with Steve, wrote a voluminous report covering all of them. The Ministry of Supply and Air Ministry seemed pleased with it, but 5 years later had forgotten the comprehensive report existed and wasted millions on duplicating projects that had already been shown to be impractical – as I shall mention later. But both the USAF and US Navy were full of praise for our report, because they were able to learn, for the first time, what the other service was doing in that highly secret field.

The next development after AZON was to put a camera in the nose of the bomb to relay back to the bomb aimer a television picture of the ground towards which the bomb was heading. This had the advantage of allowing the aircraft to manoeuvre away immediately the bomb had been released. Using a little control stick and watching the picture it relayed back onto my screen, I had little difficulty, from 10,000 feet, in guiding it to hit the target. But it could only work in perfect weather conditions and also suffered from misting up if dropped from a layer of colder air, or passing through a layer of cloud.

To overcome that difficulty, the boffins tried putting a small radar transmitter in the

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