Weapon System 124A, given the codename Flying Cloud, was a project of the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

to use high-altitude

balloon A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...

s to deliver bombs and

weapons of mass destruction A weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or any other weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to numerous individuals or cause great damage to artificial structures (e.g., buildings), natura ...

on enemy targets. Tested in late 1954, the project was found to be unfeasible from the standpoint of accuracy, and the project was terminated the following year.

Design and development

Alongside the WS-119L program to develop long-distance, high-altitude balloons for

aerial reconnaissance Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. The role of reconnaissance can fulfil a variety of requirements including artillery spotting, the collection of ima ...

, the United States Air Force initiated WS-124A in early 1953 to develop a method of delivering weaponry to targets in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

using

hydrogen balloon Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, and ...

s;Peebles 1991, p.128. such a capability was considered potentially valuable in the event of a limited nuclear conflict, or in a " broken-back" scenario following a massive nuclear exchange.Peebles 1991, p.131. The WS-124A balloons were intended to fly at altitudes of roughly , within the

jet stream Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow, meandering thermal wind, air currents in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmospheres of some planets, including Earth. On Earth, the main jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause and are west ...

; as

weather forecast Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th centu ...

s were considered to be sufficiently accurate to forecast approximately three days of wind patterns, the design flight duration was for 60 hours, in which they were expected to cover a distance of . The WS-124A balloon was designed to be capable of launching in wind speeds of up to .Parsch 2006 It was accepted that there would be an inherent inaccuracy in the concept; the expected target area was by ,Peebles 1991, p.129. which was considered acceptable as the designed payloads involved

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

and

biological weaponry Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

, although

incendiary bombs Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, th ...

, for starting forest fires, were also considered as a payload. It was believed that releasing chemical or biological agents from the balloons could contaminate an area "comparable in size to that affected by a low-yield

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

". Some sources claim that

dirty bomb A dirty bomb or radiological dispersal device is a radiological weapon that combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. The purpose of the weapon is to contaminate the area around the dispersal agent/conventional explosion with ...

s were also considered for carriage by WS-124A.Christopher 2004, p.184. In addition, the ability of the balloons to spread propaganda leaflets across enemy territory was considered useful.

Operational history

Flight tests of the WS-124A balloon system started on 8 October 1954; by 13 December, 41 balloons had been launched, 25 of which were fully operational test flights. Even allowing for the expected inaccuracy, however, only six of the balloons reached their intended target area, while five more were considered to be close enough. This was not considered an acceptable level of accuracy, and in August 1955 the WS-124A program was cancelled, the conclusion being that the weather forecasts were simply not accurate enough for the system to be operationally feasible. In addition, the advent of

thermonuclear weapon A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

s had made the " broken-back war" scenario WS-124A was intended for appear an impossibility.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{USAF system codes Chemical weapon delivery systems Biological weapon delivery systems Balloon weaponry Abandoned military projects of the United States Aircraft first flown in 1954 United States biological weapons program Chemical weapons of the United States

Design and development

Operational history

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography