Subject: Bomber Series--Boeing B-17 Fortress (14 of 27)

From: [email-masked] (joseph.f.baugher)
Date: 19 Aug 94 00:42:03 GMT

Approximately 25 high-time Fortresses (mainly B-17Fs) were converted 
into radio-controlled flying bombs under the designation BQ-7.  They 
were designed to be used against heavily-defended German positions or 
against German submarine pens or deep fortifcations that had resisted 
conventional bombing.  

The BQ-7 conversions were made at US bases in England.  The B-17s 
selected for the project were stripped of their normal military 
equipment and packed with up to 9 tons of explosives.  The plan was 
for a two-man crew to make the take off and to get the plane pointed 
in the right direction.  Afterwards, the BQ-7 would be handed over to 
radio control by an accompanying B-17, and the crew would arm the 
warhead and then leave the aircraft by parachute while still over 
England.  A Lockheed P-38 fighter would be standing by to destroy the 
BQ-7 in case something went wrong.  The controlling B-17 would then 
direct the BQ-7 to the target area over the Continent and lock its 
controls into a crash course into the target before turning to escape.  
The project was given the code name *Castor* or sometimes *Perilous* 

Fifteen BQ-7s were launched against German targets between August 4, 
1944 and January 1, 1945.  The results were not very effective, since 
the BQ-7 was essentially a light-case weapon with very little 
penetrating power, limited to a thirty-degree slant descent.  

Often, the BQ-7 was more dangerous to the people operating it than it 
was to the Germans.  In August of 1944, a crewless BQ-7 went out of 
control and crashed into an East Anglian wood, digging a crater about 
a hundred feet across.  Another crewless BQ-7 went out of control 
shortly after launch and decided to circle a British industrial area 
on its own initiative before flying out to sea.  After these 
mishaps--and in view of the generally disappointing results--the 
Castor project was abandoned as being just too dangerous for practical 
use.  

Incidentally, the BQ-7 was NOT the plane responsible for the death of 
Joseph P.  Kennedy, Jr.  The plane that killed JFK's older brother was 
a converted Consolidated PB4Y-1, a Navy version of the B-24 Liberator.  

Sources:

  Flying Fortress, Edward Jablonski, Doubleday, 1965.

  Famous Bombers of the Second World War, Volume One, William
  Green, Doubleday, 1959.

  Boeing Aircraft Since 1916, Peter M. Bowers, Naval Institute
  Press, 1989.

  United States Military Aircraft Since 1909, Gordon Swanborough
  and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.

  Boeing B-17E and F Flying Fortress, Charles D. Thompson,
  Profile Publications, 1966.

  American Combat Planes, Ray Wagner, Third Edition, Doubleday, 1982.

  Jane's Fighting Aircraft of World War II, Military Press, 1989.

Joe Baugher			**************************************
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