It pays to be resourceful during times of conflict, and World War Two (WWII) was not afraid to be innovative when it came to rations, weaponry, and an abundance of carrots (have you seen Doctor Carrot?). When he took three birds and converted them into pilots for Project Pigeon, American behaviorist B.F. Skinner’s contribution to the development of an organically controlled guided bomb ranks high on the list of innovative wartime recruits. The plane they were supposed to pilot was a tiny glider with a “guidance section” in the nose cone. The craft’s cargo was an explosive warhead, but it did not have a crew, thus it required aid reaching its target.
Having a human pilot on board would have been similar to the Ship Tokubetsu Kgekitai or “kamikaze” pilots of the Japanese Special Attack Units, who famously perished with their planes. They wanted a precision-guided bomb that could drop and hit its intended target without endangering people. Bombardiers were already dropping bombs at this point, but the pilots could not be sure if the explosive had landed where they wanted, it to once it had left the plane.
Skinner looked to the simple pigeon to see if biological control could be achieved with the assistance of an animal that was at home in the air, rather than risking human life. When he saw a flock of birds flying beside a train he was riding on, he got the idea for his project. Skinner told History Net, “Suddenly I viewed them as ‘machines’ with superb eyesight and incredible agility.” “Couldn’t they direct a missile?” Was the solution to my dilemma right in front of my eyes?”
The notion of Project Pigeon was viewed with considerable skepticism, but he was awarded $25,000 by the National Defense Research Committee and set to work. To begin with, he designed the pigeon pilots’ cockpits, which had three displays tucked under a nose cone (sadly – for the pigeons) on the missile’s tip. He successfully employed operant conditioning (which he had not helped design) to train the pigeons to recognize a target and peck at it with the lure of tasty seed. The theory was that if all three pigeon pilots were pecking in the same direction, the missile would follow suit.
The missile’s course shift would be aided wires tied to the bird’s head, which would mechanically steer the missile. Skinner’s “crazy notion” resulted in a successful demonstration, but authorities’ mistrust persisted, and Project Pigeon was shelved. Those pessimists had no idea that humans would eventually enlist the assistance of dolphins, beluga whales, and a cyborg cat to fight their conflicts.
Pigeon pilots would never take to the skies, but Skinner’s story is far from over. He went on to become one of America’s most prominent psychologists and the “father of operant conditioning,” without which we would never have been able to train fish to drive small vehicles on land. Moreover, where would we be if it were not for that?
