Laurel outlook., 1944-08-23
Allies Try Out
Robot Flying
Experiments Under Way for
Decade to Perfect
Radio Plane.

NEW YORK. - Germany's ney
pilotless air w~eapon-be it airplan'
or diversified bomb - is regarde,
with apparent calm in military cir
cles in this country, where it wa
pointed out that the British ant
American air forces have for more
than a decade explored the pc
tentialities of automatically con
trolled flight, says the New Yorl
Herald Tribune.
Pending receipt of more details
from Great Britain, army authori
ties declined official comment. But
some military men wondered wheth.
er the damage wrought could make
up for the expenditure of critical
German materials and manpower
for a self-destroying aircraft.
They noted, too, that reports of a
German mystery weapon had been
circulating from Sweden for the last
year, as a result of crashes in that
country of experimental models, and
said it could be assumed Allied
authorities had gagged thoroughly
its possibilities.
Accuracy of bombing by such de-
vices was considered a debatable
point. Prewar radio-steered British
target planes, such as the Queen
Bee, a full-size biplane, had a con-
trollable range of but 10 miles. OPP
Grafton required clear weather, to
interference by static.
Robots Used in U. S.
The hunt for successful automatic
control of flight goes back almost
to the first days of aviation. By
1929, the Sperry Gyroscope COM
pany had built an automatic plotting
device for the army air corps, and
in the early thirties, robots were in
service for level flight on air lines.
The essential elements were gyro-
scopes which would initiate a sys-
EN- of contacts to bring an airplane
pack into line whenever something
displaced it.
In 1885, the British air ministry,
after two years of secret tests, an
lounced the radio-controlled Queen
Bee, a variation of the De Havilland
Moth, designed for target
lractice by naval vessels and coast
License batteries. A public DEM
nstration revealed the yellow
aircraft could be guided
the ground to fly left, right
r straight ahead and dive, level off,
r climb. 1t reached speeds of 100
niles an hour, attitudes of 10000
eet. At that time there was specu-
alton that it might be adapted to
AIRY bombs or torpedoes.
British Plane Tested.
Just before the present war the
ueen Wasp was introduced by the
ritiSh. 1t was a plywood biplane
18th a 350-horsepower radial air.
'oled engine and a Widespread of
feet. The IA, 000-ton aircraft car
er Wasp was refitted to shelter
radio-controlled robot target
anes, produced by Airspeed at
ortsmouth, England. The carrier
ter went back to combat service.
In a newsletter, the Society of
'itish Aircraft Constructors ex-
aimed the Queen Wasp was con-
olled by a gyroscope system which
,uld bring into play an automatic
ot apparatus operating rudder
d elevator to check any tendency
the plane to wander from a course :
mmanded by radio. Ailerons were 1
,ked fast under radio control.
Parallel developments were going
in the United States. An early
get plane, designed to replace the .
!ditional lowed sleeve target, was :
edited to Col. George V. Hollo- :
IN, director of instrument and nav !
tion laboratories at Wright Field. :
Uncontrolled, it had a wing '
'ead of IL feet, and reached a
led of 70 miles an hour and a CELL
of 5000 feet, being capable of
lalf-hour flight. t
lore recent Allied developments C
re been yelled by war restric- C
IS, but word of the German activ- S
has been disseminated from
ckholm, possibly as part of the
Ter war of nerves.