The BQ-7 conversions were made at US bases in England. The B-17s selected for the project were stripped of their normal military equipment and packed with up to 9 tons of explosives. The plan was for a two-man crew to make the take off and to get the plane pointed in the right direction. Afterwards, the BQ-7 would be handed over to radio control by an accompanying B-17, and the crew would arm the warhead and then leave the aircraft by parachute while still over England. A Lockheed P-38 fighter would be standing by to destroy the BQ-7 in case something went wrong. The controlling B-17 would then direct the BQ-7 to the target area over the Continent and lock its controls into a crash course into the target before turning to escape.

The project was given the code name *Castor* or sometimes *Perilous*

Fifteen BQ-7s were launched against German targets between August 4, 1944 and January 1, 1945. The results were not very effective, since the BQ-7 was essentially a light-case weapon with very little penetrating power, limited to a thirty-degree slant descent.

Often, the BQ-7 was more dangerous to the people operating it than it was to the Germans. In August of 1944, a crewless BQ-7 went out of control and crashed into an East Anglian wood, digging a crater about a hundred feet across. Another crewless BQ-7 went out of control shortly after launch and decided to circle a British industrial area on its own initiative before flying out to sea. After these mishaps--and in view of the generally disappointing results--the Castor project was abandoned as being just too dangerous for practical use.

Incidentally, the BQ-7 was NOT the plane responsible for the death of Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. The plane that killed JFK's older brother was a converted Consolidated PB4Y-1, a Navy version of the B-24 Liberator.