The

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in me ...

Larynx (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 A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warh ...

guided by an

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

Design

A small monoplane powered by a Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IV engine, it had a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h), faster than contemporary fighters. It used autopilot principles developed by Professor

Archibald Low Archibald Montgomery Low (17 October 1888 – 13 September 1956) developed the first powered drone aircraft. He was an English consulting engineer, research physicist and inventor, and author of more than 40 books. Low has been called the "f ...

and already used in the Ruston Proctor AT, a radio controlled biplane that was intended to be used against German

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

bombers.

Project history

* First test 20 July 1927. Launched from

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burn ...

-powered catapult fitted to the S class destroyer . Crashed into

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Se ...

. * Second test 1 September 1927. Thought to have flown 100 miles (160 km) and was then lost. * Third test 15 October 1927. 112 mile (180 km) flight, hit five miles from target. * Two more launches in September and October 1928 from , another S class destroyer. * Two launches May 1929. Launched from land, one overflew target and other was successful.

Specifications

References

{{Reflist

External links

(1.0) The Aerial Torpedo

* ttp://wih.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/2/197 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
Cancelled military aircraft projects of the United Kingdom Unmanned military aircraft of the United Kingdom Guided missiles of the United Kingdom Aircraft manufactured in the United Kingdom Single-engined tractor aircraft Mid-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1927

Design

Project history

Specifications

See also

References

External links