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From Kettering Bug to Cruise Missile
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Technology for the US Air Force’s AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) has roots that span the era of the Nazi ‘buzz bomb’ and reach back to Orville Wright and the years of World War I.
Cruise missiles differ from other missile weapons in that they do not depend on rocket propulsion. They are, in fact, pilotless winged aircraft which fly through the atmosphere in a nonballistic trajectory. They are propelled by air-breathing engines and are supported by aerodynamic lift much like manned aeroplanes.
The first of their kind soared from earth better than 60 years ago, during World War I. This first cruise missile, known as the ‘Kettering Bug’ was, in effect, a flying torpedo. It was the creation of three aviation giants – Charles F. Kettering, Orville Wright and Elmer Sperry- and was developed in secrecy at the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company.
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