Glide Bomb

A glide bomb or stand-off bomb is an aerial bomb with aerodynamic surfaces to give it a flatter, gliding, flight path than that of a conventional bomb without such surfaces. This allows the bomb to be released at a distance from the target rather than right over it, allowing a successful attack without the aircraft needing to survive intact until reaching the target. World War II era glide bombs like the German Fritz X and Henschel Hs 293 pioneered the use of remote control systems, allowing the controlling aircraft to direct the bomb to a pinpoint target as a pioneering form of precision-guided munition.

Note that glide bombing, confusingly, does not refer to the use of glide bombs, but a style of shallow-angle dive bombing.

Read more about Glide Bomb:  Post-war Developments

Famous quotes containing the words glide and/or bomb:

    Novels so often provide an anodyne and not an antidote, glide one into torpid slumbers instead of rousing one with a burning brand.
    Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

    “... There, there,
    What you complain of, all the nations share.
    Their effort is a mounting ecstasy
    That when it gets too exquisite to bear
    Will find relief in one burst. You shall see.
    That’s what a certain bomb was sent to be.”
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)