In 1945, Bell Aircraft was commissioned to develop this impressive guided bomb using the British Tallboy “earthquake bomb”. Tarzon was the acronym of TAllboy, Range and aZimuth ONly, which were the aspects on which the bomb guide systems operated.Tarzon bomb had a total weight of 5,900kg, because at 5,400kg of the bomb, 500kg of the guidance systems were added. The explosive charge was the normal one of the Tallboy bombs, consisting of about 2,400kg of Torpex D1 explosive. The use of this bomb was limited to clear-day missions due to its guidance system.Gyroscopes helped stabilize and a pneumatic system moved the bomb’s control surfaces during the flight. The tracking towards the target was made in a visual mode, for which a flare was installed in the bomb tail allowed an easy tracking from the launcher aircraft.The targets chosen for Tarzon bombs were always of high strategic value, as bridges, command posts or bunkers. During the Korean War, 30 missions were carried out with a total of 28 launched bombs, of which only 6 completely destroyed their targets. Among these successful missions are the destruction of the Hwach-On dam and the Kanggye bridge.
