A flying bomb is a manned or unmanned aerial vehicle or aircraft carrying a large explosive warhead, a precursor to contemporary cruise missiles. In contrast to a bomber aircraft, which is intended to release bombs and then return to its base for re-use, a flying bomb crashes into its target and is therefore itself destroyed in its attack.
The term flying bomb is most frequently associated with two specific Second World War weapons, the German V-1 and the Japanese Ohka. The former was unpiloted, the latter carried a pilot on a kamikaze mission.
Famous quotes containing the words flying and/or bomb:
“Y’know plenty of people, in their right mind, thought they saw things that didn’t exist, y’know, like flying saucers. The light was just right, and the angle and the imagination. Oh boy, if that’s what it is, then this is just an ordinary night. You and I are going to go home and go to sleep and tomorrow when we get up that sun’s gonna shine. Just like yesterday. Good ol’ yesterday.”
—Theodore Simonson. Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr.. Steve Andrews (Steven McQueen)
“The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)