Before smart-guided missiles, the U.S. tried to guide missiles using trained pigeons.

Follow us @oddsontechnology_ for more tech archives and tech videos. The U.S. military once tried to build a missile controlled by pigeons. During World War II, psychologist B. F. Skinner convinced the U.S. military to fund Project Pigeon, later revived as Project Orcon (Organic Control). The idea was as bizarre as it sounds: place trained pigeons inside the nose of a missile, project the target onto a screen, and let the birds guide the weapon by pecking at the image. Their pecks were translated into control signals that kept the missile locked onto its target. As unbelievable as it sounds, the system actually worked during testing. The project wasn’t canceled because the pigeons failed—it was canceled because electronic guidance systems, radar, and early computerized missile technology advanced quickly enough to make a bird-powered guidance system obsolete. It’s one of the strangest examples of military innovation, proving that some of history’s wildest ideas were real. #ProjectOrcon #Military #Army #Defense #Tech