Going Out With A (Big) Bang: Boeing BQ-7 Aphrodite

In this video, we talk about the Boeing BQ-7 Aphrodite and the Consolidated BQ-8, converted Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and Consolidated B-24 Liberators intended to serve as guided bombs. We first talk about the European theater mid-World War II and Germany's attempts to construct launch sites for their V1 and V2 rockets. We talk about the grave danger they posed to Britain and how the allies attempted to stop these sites through Operation Crossbow. We talk about how that operation was deemed a failure due to the apparent lack of large enough explosives.

We then look at the intended solutions in the form of the BQ-7 and BQ-8, part of Operation Aphrodite and Operation Anvil, worn-out bombers that would be stripped of just about everything and loaded with Torpex, a British-made explosive. We talk about the radio control systems of these, how finicky they were, and how ineffective they were in the field. We then talk about an infamous use of the BQ-8 that ended in the death of the older brother of then-future President John F. Kennedy. We end by talking about how some German deception may have been instrumental in these two projects existing.