View source for Engineering:Flying bomb

{{Short description|Self-propelled aerial weapon}}
[[Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1975-117-26, Marschflugkörper V1 vor Start.jpg|right|thumb|300px|[[Engineering:V-1 flying bomb|V-1 flying bomb]]]]
[[Image:Japanese Ohka rocket plane.jpg|right|thumb|Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka]]

A '''flying bomb''' is a manned or [[Engineering:Unmanned aerial vehicle|unmanned aerial vehicle]] or aircraft carrying a large explosive [[Engineering:Warhead|warhead]], a precursor to contemporary [[Engineering:Cruise missile|cruise missile]]s. In contrast to a bomber aircraft, which is intended to release bombs and then return to its base for re-use, a flying bomb crashes into its target and is therefore destroyed in its attack.

The term flying bomb is most frequently associated with two specific Second World War weapons, the German [[Engineering:V-1 flying bomb|V-1]] and the Japanese Ohka. The former was unpiloted, as the first known [[Engineering:Cruise missile|cruise missile]] ever deployed in combat; the latter carried a pilot on a kamikaze mission.

==Historic exemplars==
''The Sphere'' of March 13, 1915 published an article on "The Possibilities of an Aerial Torpedo Controlled by Wireless", suggested by a "correspondent to the Sphere" and declared feasible by an "aviation expert".

The first attempt to build a flying bomb (alternatively called an "aerial torpedo" in the Navy) was undertaken by Elmer Sperry for the US Navy in 1916, called the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, and was based on a Curtiss N-9 seaplane. This led to a mission-specific Curtiss design, the Curtiss-Sperry Flying Bomb, which was almost completely unsuccessful. The US Army also tried to develop a flying bomb in [[Social:World War I|World War I]], the [[Engineering:Kettering Bug|Kettering Bug]], but the war ended before the program could mature. The functioning but unsuccessful German [[Engineering:Mistel|Mistel]] flying bomb was essentially an enormous [[Engineering:Shaped charge|shaped charge]] mounted on a repurposed twin-engined medium bomber's airframe (most often a [[Engineering:Junkers Ju 88|Junkers Ju 88]]) in place of the cockpit, that was guided by [[Engineering:Composite aircraft|a fighter sitting on top]]. The fighter first took a course towards the target, then released the Mistel which would continue to its target. The best known example of a flying bomb is the German [[Engineering:V-1 flying bomb|V-1]], many of which targeted [[Place:London|London]] in 1944 during [[Social:World War II|World War II]].

==Types==
Flying bombs may be powered or unpowered, piloted or unpiloted, although unpowered flying bombs such as the United States Navy Bat and German ''Hagelkorn'' ("Hailstone") and Fritz X designed during [[Social:World War II|World War II]] are usually referred to as [[Engineering:Glide bomb|glide bomb]]s. Flying bombs are analogous to modern cruise missiles such as the jet-powered Tomahawk and rocket-powered Exocet, in that they are equipped with [[Physics:Wing|wing]]s to provide [[Physics:Lift (force)|lift]] over a long distance and generally have engines that operate up until impact. This is significantly different from  [[Physics:Ballistic missile|ballistic missile]]s, which are launched on a [[Physics:Ballistics|ballistic]] trajectory and do not rely on lift to reach their targets.

==See also==
* [[Engineering:Aerial torpedo|Aerial torpedo]]
* [[Engineering:Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg|Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg]], the "R IV" version of which was intended to be a piloted flying bomb
* [[Social:Loitering munition|Loitering munition]]

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060618103546/http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V1_into.html V1 Flying Bomb]
* [http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/sperry-fb.html Curtiss/Sperry "Flying Bomb"]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/19980703143443/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/ww1-10.pdf Developing the Flying Bomb]

[[Category:Missile types]]

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