ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Kettering Bug

Okay kiddo, sit down and listen carefully! The Kettering bug is a very special thing that happened a long time ago. So, do you know what an airplane is? Yes? Good! Planes fly in the sky and help us travel to different places.

Now, back in the olden days, people had a problem when they wanted the airplane to fly by itself without anyone controlling it. They wanted the airplane to know where it was going and how to get there all by itself! But that was a big problem to solve.

So, a smart man named Charles Kettering came up with an idea. He made a little flying machine that could steer itself and go to a specific place without anyone controlling it. This was called the Kettering Bug! Why bug, you ask? Well, it was smaller than a regular airplane and sometimes it looked like a bug flying in the sky.

The Kettering Bug had special things called gyroscopes inside it. Do you know what a gyroscope is? No? Well, it's like a little spinning top that can keep its balance even when it moves around a lot. The Kettering Bug used the gyroscopes to stay balanced and go where it needed to go.

The Kettering Bug was used in wars to spy on the other side and take pictures. It was very helpful because it could fly all by itself and nobody had to go inside it. But after a while, people figured out how to make airplanes fly by themselves and the Kettering Bug wasn't needed anymore.

So, that's what the Kettering Bug is all about: a little flying machine that could go where it needed to go all by itself!