Tests were conducted over the next five years, using a sophisticated trainer that simulated a missile. The pigeon suspended inside faced a screen on which color photos of actual ships were projected. A metal contact was attached to its beak, and a flexible wire from it linked the bird to the missile.

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A gridless screen made of electrically conducting glass tracked where the pigeon had pecked it. The servo-motors then steered the missile to a target ship, and the bird was rewarded with the usual kernels of corn. Repeated performances showed that the pigeons could guide missiles — well enough under ideal conditions to score hits, although clouds, waves and shadows could throw them off course.

Project Orcon was canceled in 1953, when electronic guidance systems for missiles were deemed reliable. The Orcon test results, however, were kept under wraps for six more years before they were declassified. Meanwhile, there was an important spinoff from the research. The electrical conducting glass developed for the pigeon training became a key feature in the combat control centers of U.S. warships. It was employed by plotters using magnetic probes to trace the course of attacking aircraft.

Although bats and pigeons were never used to bomb enemy targets, the test results show that they could have. It is interesting to speculate what the results might have been if they had actually gone to war.

This article was written by C.V. Glines, an award-winning aviation author and a member of Aviation History’s editorial advisory board. For additional reading, try: Bat Bomb, by Jack Couffer, or The Shaping of a Behaviorist, by B.F. Skinner. This article was originally published in the May 2005 issue of Aviation History.

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