The New Weapon

Radio-Controlled Bomb Is Unlikely to Help Germans

In the speech which he made last week before the House of Commons, Prime Minister Churchill referred to an "aerial bomb which the enemy has begun to use at close quarters on our ships close to the coast," and which he described "as a sort of rocket-assisted glider which releases its bombs from a height and is directed toward its target by a parent aircraft."

At the outset it may be questioned whether Mr. Churchill used the word "rocket" in its strict technical sense. To an engineer a rocket propels itself forward by ejecting some fluid, preferably a gas, at high velocity. No practical means of enabling a vehicle of any kind to kick itself through space in this fashion has yet been devised. To be sure we have Professor Goddard's rockets, but these are not airplanes or automobiles. Before the war the late Max Valier drove an experimental automobile around a racetrack near Berlin. The Italians experimented with a rocket airplane before the war. Since we never heard more about this automobile and airplane it must be assumed that they were not a success. On the other hand, it is possible that they may have taught the Germans much.

Compressed-Air Motors?

Mr. Churchill may have used the word "rocket" rather loosely to designate a self-propelled bomb or shell of any type. The word "rocket" certainly indicates that the German bomb is self-propelled, so that it does not rely entirely on gravity. Though we have no exact information it may be that the German "glider-bomb," is probably driven by motors which could easily be controlled by radio. Whether or not this guess is right we have merely the development of an art which has engaged radio engineers for nearly fifty years.

At the first electrical exposition held in New York — and this was before 1900 — the late Nikola Tesla controlled a model ship in a tank and even blew it up — all by radio. Both the British and we have used radio-controlled obsolete battleships under full steam as targets. John Hays Hammond and others have shown that it is possible to guide torpedoes by radio. And crewless radio-controlled airplanes have been patented by the score and described in engineering publications. Remote control by radio is nothing new.

It is probable that the Germans have devised a bomb which has wings, motors and rudders controlled from an airplane. What the speed of such a weapon is we have no means of ascertaining. If that speed is high and if the winged bomb is heavy, the problem of control is formidable. It would not be much of a trick to swing the rudders in the proper direction by radio, but the inertia would not be easily overcome at high speed. It may be replied that anti-aircraft shells are now used which, though small, contain not only high explosive but electron tubes and radio-responsive detonating apparatus and which are exploded at the proper height by radio. This is an entirely different problem. No control of direction is demanded.

Other Questions

Mr. Churchill said that the new bombs had been used by the Germans "at close quarters." If he means that the bombs were released when they were near the target there is not much chance to control the direction, even if the distance is a mile or two. On the other hand, if the ship is attacked from a height which is beyond the range of anti-aircraft guns, at least 35,000 feet, it is hard to see how control of flight by radio is possible. Possibly some surface is provided which acts as a parachute to reduce the speed. In that case the bomb will have little penetrating power. Even a large bomb — one that weighs a ton or more — would be hard to follow in rapid flight with instruments.

If the ships in a convoy conceal themselves with smoke screens, which would be the usual procedure, the eye in the air would see nothing of importance. From an altitude of 35,000 feet a single ship, even if it did not veil itself in smoke, would be about as conspicuous as a speck of dust on a glass plate. Precision bombing, as Americans practice it, can be very precise, as the tales of the destruction wrought on selected strategic targets in Germany and Italy, indicate. On the other hand, it is significant that the British are all for area bombing, even though by this time they have access to our precision sights.

Conceding the practicability of packing into a winged bomb propelling and responding apparatus even more complicated than that which is built into a torpedo, this department doubts if Allied shipping has much to fear. If the Germans can use controlling "parent" airplanes in the manner that Mr. Churchill describes, it is obvious that counter measures can be taken in the form of attacking airplanes. We know now that the Germans have not succeeded in sinking any transatlantic vessels for months because of the ease with which submarines are spotted and attacked by airplanes. And, as Mr. Churchill pointed out, "we have always been able to find an answer to any new problems presented."