WI: Earliest Pigeon Bomb

B.F. Skinner proposed the use of pigeons to guide bombs, and after testing they turned out to have a 55% success rate and they pecked within a quarter inch of the target on screen(don't know how that translates to precise accuracy though).

Other wartime projects shelved it, and after a brief revival the idea was replaced by electronics in 1953.

Is it possible for him, or anybody else, to develop the idea early enough to be used in WW2 or before?

It has two main flaws, only useable during the day and it's only as good as the optics system since the birds have to see the target to peck it.
 
The idea is an outgrowth of behavioural psychology, and I think that became significant in the 1920s or 1930s. So it might be just possible to get something like that in service for WW2... but you'd have to have people looking through psychology journals thinking "now THAT has weapons applications!", in a period when there's no obvious threat to counter. That part is left as an exercise for the student.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
The idea is an outgrowth of behavioural psychology, and I think that became significant in the 1920s or 1930s. So it might be just possible to get something like that in service for WW2... but you'd have to have people looking through psychology journals thinking "now THAT has weapons applications!", in a period when there's no obvious threat to counter. That part is left as an exercise for the student.

Agreed, mostly a matter of someone reading the journal, liking the idea, and then having enough power to fund it. The Germans like the wonder weapon concept, so they would be the most likely candidate. If the basic testing is done by 1938, then the weapon can be rushed to production once the Germans realize they need to defeat the British Navy.
 
More importantly: Would it actually work?

it seems like you'd run out of pigeons fast.

There are probably other birds that could be used, such as chickens or perhaps sparrows. Pigeons etc can be bred in captivity and presumably such efforts could be scaled up if there was a perceived need, I'm just not sure how long it would take for them to reach maturity and be trained suitably.

The other thing is that we're not necessarily talking about using these bombs exclusively - unless a pigeon has been trained to peck on whatever it's seeing, it won't be any more accurate than a conventional bomb. Ships are probably the best targets for something like this, because they can be discerned from their background more easily.
 
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