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Aphrodite was the World War II code name of a United States Army Air Forces operation to use worn out Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated PB4Y bombers as radio controlled flying bombs against bunkers and other hardened or reinforced enemy facilities.
The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater of Operations and dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during World War II.
The Collings Foundation B-17G N93012 restored to represent B-17G Nine-O-Nine of the 323rd Bomb Squadron, one of two longest-serving B-17's of the 91st BG; the original "Nine-O-Nine" was scrapped after World War II in Kingman, Arizona. One of the last QB-17 Drones at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, 1959
DB-17 was the designation for B-17s converted as drone director aircraft. They would be used to guide the QB-17 target drones during the missile tests. [1] [3] When they were worn out or the need was diminished, other postwar military B-17s would more often than not be sent to Middletown and converted to the QB-17 drone configuration.
In 1946, eight B-17 Flying Fortresses were transformed by American airmen into drones for collecting radioactive data. They were controlled at takeoff and landing from a transmitter on a jeep, and during flight by a transmitter on another B-17. They were used on Bikini Atoll (Operation Crossroads) to gather samples from inside the radioactive ...
Late in World War II, at least 25 B-17s were fitted with radio controls as BQ-7 drones for Operation Aphrodite. Loaded with 20,000 lb (9,100 kg) of Torpex high explosive and enough fuel for 350 mi (560 km), they were to be used to attack Nazi U-boat pens, V-1 flying bomb sites, and bomb-resistant fortifications .
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B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 2d Bombardment Group on a mission from Amendola Airfield, Italy, 1944. United States Army Air Forces formations and units in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTO) were the second-largest user of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress during World War II. There were a total of six combat groups (twenty-four ...