Operation Aphrodite

Aphrodite, BQ-7, BQ-8
Aphrodite, BQ-7, BQ-8
Type	Radio-controlled aircraft as guided missiles
Place of origin	United States
Service history
In service	1944
Used by	United States Army Air Forces (Aphrodite); United States Navy (Anvil)
Specifications
Warhead	Payload: around 20,000 lb (9.1 t) Torpex
Guidance; system	Azon (TV sensor, radio control); Castor (radar & TV sensors, radio control)

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. A parallel project by the United States Navy was codenamed Anvil.^[2] The missions were not generally successful, and the intended targets in Europe were either overrun by the ground advance of Allied troops or disabled by conventional attacks by aircraft.

^ Cite error: The named reference Freeman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Spark, Nick T. (October 2004). "Television Goes to War". Secret Arsenal: Advanced American Weapons of WWII. Archived from the original on 17 April 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2015. Originally published in Wings magazine in October 2004