The Royal Aircraft EstablishmentLarynx (from "Long Range Gun with Lynx engine") was an early British pilotless aircraft, to be used as a guided anti-ship weapon. Started in September 1925, it was an early cruise missile guided by an autopilot.[1]
Design
A small monoplane powered by a 200 hp (150 kW) Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV engine, it had a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h), faster than contemporary fighters.[2]
It used autopilot principles developed by Professor Archibald Low[citation needed] and already used in the Ruston Proctor AT, a radio controlled biplane that was intended to be used against German Zeppelin bombers.[citation needed]
The RAF began work on a true "flying bomb" in September 1925. Compared with the RAE 1921 Target missile, the Larynx (Long Range Gun with Lynx Engine) was smaller, heavier, and faster. In fact, a 200 hp (150 kW) Lynx IV engine gave the device a top speed of about 200 mph (322 km/h), making it faster than contemporary fighters.
^ a bGibson, Chris; Buttler, Tony (2007). British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles. Hinckley: Midland. ISBN 978-1-85780-258-0. OCLC 310094852.
^ a bEverett, H.R. (2015). Unmanned Systems of World Wars I and II. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-26202-922-3.
External links
(1.0) The Aerial Torpedo
Remote Piloted Aerial Vehicles : The 'Aerial Target' and 'Aerial Torpedo' in Britain
Interwar British Experiments with Pilotless Aircraft pay to access
"Automatic Flight" a 1958 Flight article
The Mother of All Drones - Article Vintage Wings of Canada Archived 26 December 2016 at the Wayback Machine