What was the BQ-17 of Operation Aphrodite?

Aphrodite was the code name for a United States Army Air Forces operation to use war-weary Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and Consolidated PB4Y bombers as radio-controlled flying bombs against bunkers and other hardened or reinforced enemy installations. Those aircraft were not designated BQ-17: Doolittle approved the plan on 26 June and assigned the 3rd Bombardment Division to prepare and fly the drones, which were to be designated BQ-7. The plan called for B-17E/Fs withdrawn from operational service, known by nicknames such as "robot," "baby," "drone," or "weary Willy," loaded to the limit with explosives and flown by radio control against bomb-resistant fortifications, such as German submarine shelters and V-weapon sites.

At the RAF base at Honington, B-17F and B-17G bombers were stripped of all combat armament and other non-essential equipment. The drone was loaded with an amount of explosive whose weight was more than double the normal bomb load of a B-17. The British Torpex used for this purpose was 50% more powerful than TNT alone.

Each drone was flown into the air by a volunteer crew of a pilot and a flight engineer up to an altitude of 2,000 ft (600 m) before transferring control to the CQ-4 operators. After handing over command, the two men armed the charge and parachuted out of the cockpit. The "mother ship" then guided the missile to the target. The USAAF also planned to equip war-weary B-24 Liberators with explosives and autopilots for use against defended targets in Japan, under the designation BQ-8.