Pigeons for war use
For Skinner, therefore, the behavior of living beings was predictable and controllable. He now wanted to use this knowledge for missile control. How about, he suggested, having conditioned pigeons in the rocket directing it? Because the bullets have to be constantly stabilized on their trajectory and the course has to be adjusted again and again. Something Skinner thought pigeons could take on. In the early 1940s, it was not yet possible to implement a control system from a technical point of view alone.
Nazi Germany used the Aggregat 4 rocket, better known as the V2, in World War II starting in 1944. It was equipped with a very modern control system, which could keep the flying object itself on course. It is therefore considered one of the first guided missiles. In view of this, the OSRD in the USA was feverishly looking for a solution to its own weak air defenses.
Skinner called his proposal “Project Pigeon”—Project Pigeon, which he later rebranded as “Project Orcon”; he derived the name from the term »organic control«. The idea behind this was that up to three pigeons are housed in the capsule at the tip of the rocket. In front of each pigeon is a screen equipped with sensors, onto which the target is projected. The birds were conditioned to peck at the target on the monitor, guiding the missile. If it deviated from the course, the target would move off the center of the screen, the pigeons would follow the target, and so the sensors would detect the deviations and, if necessary, correct the missile’s course.
In addition to Norbert Wiener, the OSRD also supported Skinner, who received 25,000 US dollars for his research. However, the project was shelved in October 1944 because the OSRD was convinced that a technical solution would be far more appropriate than missile piloting pigeons. Even so, Skinner’s idea was not entirely discarded. In 1948 the US Navy looked into it again, this time under the name “Project Orcon”. In 1953, the military finally abandoned the pigeon plan.