Trivia during the slow season - Secret military weapons II

Here is the second military related trivia question:

Along the same time frame of the Bat Bomb, the US military were researching ways to make their bombs more accurate.

What was one of the first developments in the realm of "guided smart bombs" in the US military?

 

After reading about the Bat Bombs I am afraid to even guess....

 

Ah, come on... give it a peck or two.

 

The developer used the fastest "video input processor" known to him at the time.

 

Using wires?

 

Wires do play a small part but thinkig of wires will draw you away from the real answer.

 

Homing pigeons

 

WZT, I'm calling that close enough.

Pigeons were trained to peck at a moving object. When they successfully performed the act, they were rewarded with food. The pigeons could be placed in the nose cone of the bomb where it could see the ships through three windows. As the ship started to move, the pigeon would peck on the area where the ship was causing the tail fins to move and correct the trajectory of the bomb.

The first clue was "Come on, give it a PECK or two"

The next clue was that it used the fasted video input processor known at that time. As the video states, pigeons process visual data extremely fast.

Wires come into play with the electrode placed on the pigeon's beak.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vIbZB6rNLZ4" frameborder="0"></iframe>

 

So what are the odds ... Mysteries at the Museum is about to have a segment on the pidgean bomb (travel channel).

 

I saw both of these on the Military channel on DirecTv.