The Bat
Through a successful team effort between
Frederick Community College's (FCC) Aviation
Maintenance Program and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST)
Office of Information Services (OIS), a new
exhibit featuring a renovated World War II Bat
Missile airframe resides in the NIST Museum.
The exhibit was unveiled during NIST's
Centennial Celebration in early March.
Ian McCloskey holds a part of the
disassembled Bat
The project was initiated by former NIST
employee and Standards Alumni Association
member Reeves Tilley and moved forward when
Mike Coraggio, the OIS Director's spouse,
learned of the interest in the Bat. An
aerospace engineer who was recently certified
by the FAA to repair aircraft, Mike suggested
that restoring the missile would be an
interesting project for the FCC Program, where
he had received his training for certification.
He contacted Ian McCloskey, Director of the
Aviation Maintenance Program and the
partnership was launched. The Bat was stored in
pieces in a NIST warehouse. The vehicle, 12
feet long with a 10-foot wingspan, was
tattered, timeworn, and damaged from long
storage. Mike, along with a small group of
current students, inspected, cleaned and
repaired all damage. They then painted and
reassembled the missile. Mike designed a
support stand, which was fabricated at NIST to
hold the Bat for display purposes.
The Bat Missile holds an important place in
military technologies developed during World
War II. It was the United States' first fully
automated, guided missile employed in war. The
National Bureau of Standards (now called NIST)
was a major contributor to its development. The
airframe dates back to the late 1940s, when NBS
participated in a program with the Navy and
private industry to develop the weapon.
The missile was a glide bomb carried by a Navy
patrol bomber and was designed to destroy ships
and offshore enemy targets. It was not
rocket-propelled but is still considered an
early guided missile because it employed a
radar homing device that guided the missile to
its target. Visual contact with the target was
not required. Analogous to a bat, after which
it was named, the missile transmitted pulses
and listened for their reflections from the
target. Instead of high frequency sound waves,
the missile used reflected radar waves from
enemy ships.
Bat in flight just after release from a
Navy Hell-Diver.
The Bat was launched from its carrier aircraft
flying as high as 15,000 to 25,000 feet and was
released when within a 15-20 mile range of its
target. The Bat carried a 1,000-lb
general-purpose (GP) bomb. The Bat's steering
mechanism included control surfaces at the
trailing edge of the wings that functioned as
elevons (a combination of elevator and aileron
control functions). These were directed by
auto-pilot servomotors. Venturi tubes on either
side of the nose provided a vacuum source to
drive the gyros for stabilization.
Bat mounted under wing of PB4Y patrol
bomber.
The Bat was used in the Pacific Theater toward
the end of the War. It was used primarily
against Japanese shipping because its radar
could easily pick up the image of a ship on a
blank ocean.
Through the renovated test model, the exhibit
provides an insight into what life was like at
the Institute during World War II. NBS began
its war-related research as early as 1939, when
NBS Director Lyman J. Briggs sent a memorandum
to the Department of Commerce describing the
services the Bureau could render "in the event
of war." At the time, the Bureau's staff of
2,300 worked in 20 major and 60 minor buildings
on the old Northwest Washington DC campus. The
exhibit highlights the NBS scientists who
worked on the Bat as well as the process of its
development. NIST, OIS and the FCC Aviation
Maintenance Program are all tremendously
excited about this exhibit.
Last updated: November 2, 2004
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