Skinner was left with, as he put it, “a loftful of curiously useless equipment and a few dozen pigeons with a strange interest in a feature of the New Jersey coast.” The birds’ flying days were over. Well, you know what I mean.

Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "The Bird Bomb".

1 Comments

1. 1. wlpert.bio-optics 02:01 PM 9/1/08

   I have heard several stories of animals being used as guidance systems. My version of the guided bomb system differs from the one you describe in the September issue of Scientific American and is probably a classic example of hand down stories. My version has it that the pigeons were trained to peck at a visual targets but once they were put to a real test they became disorientated in free fall and the test failed.
   
   The account given in: http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/weapons-systems-tech/pigeon-guidance-system-4529.html describes the guidance as having the screen that the pigeons peck at being wired to provide feedback to the bomb flight controls. This would seem to be more plausible, given the period of time, than using the birds head movements to control the system. Also a guided bomb would seem to be the appropriate vehicle rather than a missile which implies a propulsion system. A guided bomb being a device without propulsion but with guidance fins to control the flight path once released. Never the less an interesting story. This latter reference also says that the pigeons were feed marijuana seeds rather than grain seeds as the pigeons were less easily disturbed under confusing circumstances. I'm not sure about all of that. By the way there is a good picture of the three screens and nose cone of the guided bomb at: http://historywired.si.edu/object.cfm?id=353.
   
   Having worked in the Aerospace/Defense industry in California I heard the following story of bats being used to deliver incendiary devices. The purpose was to set fires and destroy cities in Japan during WW II. My version has it that replicas of wooden Japanese buildings were built on an Air Force base to train the bats to fly and roost under the eves of the buildings. Incendiary devices would be attached to the bats and timing devices used to set off the devices. When the real test came about the bats not only flew to the replica Japanese buildings but also to some of the aircraft hangers and all caught on fire. The account given in: http://ww.dmnintresting.com/?p=403 attributes this progam to a dentist Lytle S. Adams. The intent is identical and it is stated that an auxiliary Army base in Carlsbad NM was set on fire during an accidentical release of armed bats. The program was apparently funded to approx. $2M but was canceled with the impending development of the atomic bomb.
   
   Another California story has it that pigeons were used by Lockheed Martin to deliver microfilm images of drawings from their Sunnyvale facility to a research facility in the Santa Cruz mountains. The story seems to be born out in a couple of web sites: http://www.schoolnet.ph/school/forum/message?message_id=7492&forum_id=7413 and http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine.MAG1125883/index.htm
   Lockheed had considered transmitting the documents over an existing microwave facility but it would have required an expensive printer at the receiving end. In the end they used pigeons to deliver microfilm images of drawings put in canisters attached to the pigeons. Although the two facilities were close, it took a driver some 90 minutes to make the trip which was slowed by traffic and the winding road. Pigeons made the trip in 30 minutes and at less than one percent of the dollar cost at that time in 1981. My version has it that the program was canceled because so many pigeons were lost to hawks in the Patchen Santa Cruz mountain pass. One of the references above says only two pigeons were lost over a 16 month period.
   
   One last pigeon story. I happened on an exhibit at the main Los Angeles public Library that had an touring exhibit of "Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business" in '04. One of the exhibits was centerd on Ida Rosenthal who turned a small dress making operation into the Maiden form Brassiere Company in 1960. During WW II they departed from their usual line to make a "pigeon vest," a pouch to protect carrier pigeons being carried by parachuter's into North Africa. The vest is described and shown in: http://www.harvardmagazine.com/on-line/0103155.html
   

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