America's Pursuit of Precision Bombing, 1910-1945"World War I demonstrated the potential of aerial bombing and also its underlying weakness: without accuracy, it was more bluster than power. Eager to avoid the horrors of prolonged trench warfare and to adopt an economy of force strategy U.S. military services aggressively pursued the goal of precision. In this book, Stephen L. McFarland traces the evolution of bombing doctrines and of two interrelated technologies - bombsights and automatic pilots - from the earliest efforts in 1910 to stabilize aircraft in flight to the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. Using primary sources, he discusses the technology behind strategic bombing campaigns and offers the first complete account of the Norden bombsight as the underpinning of that strategy."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Means for Dropping Projectiles from Aerial Crafts | 8 |
The Armys Pursuit of Precision Bombing | 26 |
To Sink Ships | 45 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
achieve aiming point air power Air Service aircraft airmen airplane altitude American angle April Army Air Forces Arnold attack August automatic pilot autopilot Aviation Barth bombardier Bomber Command Bombing Accuracy bombing run bombs dropped BuAer Confidential Correspondence BuOrd Carl Norden Chief of Air circular error civilians Dahlgren Dargue daylight precision strategic December device dive bombing doctrine Eighth Air Force Elmer Sperry Engineering Division equipment Estoppey February feet File flight flying Folder-Bomb Sights German ground speed high-altitude industrial January July June LeMay low-altitude M-Series Mark 15 Norden Mark XI Materiel Division military missions Naval Navy Navy's Mark 15 Norden bombsight Norden Mark October Office Operations Ordnance percent precision bombing precision strategic bombing problem production radar Report SBAE September Sperry Gyroscope Company stabilization synchronous target tests Twentieth Air Force United USSBS Wimperis World World War II Wright Field XXI Bomber Command York