Skip to content(if available)orjump to list(if available)

The WW2 experiment to make pigeon-guided missiles [video]

The WW2 experiment to make pigeon-guided missiles [video]

6 comments

·February 5, 2025
Visit

dunham

I'm not sure I'd want internet connected guided missiles:

https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1149

spike021

off-topic but that reminds me of the “Twitch plays $someGame” phenomenon of about a decade or so ago. I remember some games being nearly impossible to play because the next control came through by chat and basically cancelled out the previous due to how messy that all was. No thanks!

tagami

BF Skinner. Same person that brought us variable reward loops now found in casinos, free to play games, and other manipulations.

stevenwoo

This is kind of a fun exercise in hindsight but for a successful WW2 project that was pretty high tech for the time and successfully deployed - the proximity fuze is pretty hard to beat, the basic physics is simple enough for most people to grasp it but this problem stumped the Nazis and the Japanese only figured out a solution too late in the war to deploy.

lelandfe

See also https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb

ricksunny

Ah yes, Vannevar Bush's OSRD's Division 19.