The Fleetwings BQ-1 was an early expendable
unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...
— referred to at the time as an "
assault drone" — developed by
Fleetwings during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
for use by the
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
. Only a single example of the type was built, the program being cancelled following the crash of the prototype on a test flight.
Development
Development of the BQ-1 began on 10 July 1942, under a program for the development of "aerial torpedoes" – unmanned aircraft carrying internal bombs – that had been instigated in March of that year. Fleetwings was contracted to build a single XBQ-1 assault drone,
[Werrell 1985, p.30.] powered by two
Franklin O-405-7
opposed piston engines, and fitted with a fixed landing gear in
tricycle configuration. The aircraft was
optionally piloted
An optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) or optionally piloted aerial vehicle is a hybrid between a conventional piloted aircraft and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Able to fly with or without a human crew on board the aircraft, OPVs are a low-cost ...
; a single-seat cockpit was installed for ferry and training flights; a fairing would replace the cockpit canopy on operational missions.
[Parsch 2005] The BQ-1 was intended to carry a
warhead
A warhead is the section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket (weapon), rocket, torpedo, or bomb.
Classification
Types of warheads include:
*E ...
over a range of at ; the aircraft would be destroyed in the act of striking the target.
A single
BQ-2 was to be constructed as well under the same contract.
Flight testing
Following trials of the television-based
command guidance
Command guidance is a type of missile guidance in which a ground station or aircraft relay signals to a guided missile via radio control or through a wire connecting the missile to the launcher and tell the missile where to steer to intercept its ...
system using a
PQ-12 target drone
A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews.
One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operation ...
, and earlier trials of the XBQ-2A, the XBQ-1 flew in May 1944; however, the aircraft crashed on 17 July 1944 due to engine failure just after take-off from Wright Field. Following the loss of the lone prototype BQ-1, the project was cancelled.
Specifications (XBQ-1)
See also
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
*
*
{{US unmanned aircraft
BQ-1
1940s United States bomber aircraft
Unmanned aerial vehicles of the United States
World War II guided missiles of the United States
Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United States
High-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1944
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft
Aircraft with fixed tricycle landing gear