daveT
Senior Airman
I recently purchased a WWII Sperry A-5 Autopilot system.
I'm looking for info about what made up the complete system?
List of all components? Any other general info like list of aircraft it was used on, How it was used, used with which bomb sights, how much is it worth now, etc
I have the following equipment:
Trim tab control
Vertical Gyro
Amplifier Rack
Follow up and Comp Mech. (type 9)
Compensating Sight K-13
Automatic Computing Sight for Turret Upper Local Control type K-3
This is all I know about the system now:
When the Sperry A-5 autopilot was developed. This was the first all electric autopilot. This new autopilot used three dual-element vacuum tube amplifiers and high-speed gyros. Each amplifier was associated with a different axis: Yaw, pitch, and roll. The high-speed gyros were more sensitive and established a base reference level of the aircraft's level flight path. Whenever the aircraft deviated from the base reference level, the autopilot adjusted for the amount of time that occurred between the changes in reference levels. This allowed the autopilot to detect the velocity and acceleration of the change. The calculated change was then communicated quickly to the control surfaces by independent electro-hydraulic servos. This led to faster, more stable corrections of the aircraft.
The faster stabilization of the aircraft by the A-5 autopilot made it possible for new bombsights to be used on military aircraft. The Norden Bombsight and Sperry Bombsight were both used onboard Army and Navy bombers during the war. Both bombsights used gyroscopes, telescopes and analog computers to calculate the release point for bombers to drop their payloads accurately onto ground targets. The A-5 had the ability to be integrated with these bombsights. Once the bombardier found the target and adjusted the bombsight, the autopilot would be engaged to fly the aircraft straight and level to the target, where the bombsight would automatically calculate the release point of the bombs.
I'm looking for info about what made up the complete system?
List of all components? Any other general info like list of aircraft it was used on, How it was used, used with which bomb sights, how much is it worth now, etc
I have the following equipment:
Trim tab control
Vertical Gyro
Amplifier Rack
Follow up and Comp Mech. (type 9)
Compensating Sight K-13
Automatic Computing Sight for Turret Upper Local Control type K-3
This is all I know about the system now:
When the Sperry A-5 autopilot was developed. This was the first all electric autopilot. This new autopilot used three dual-element vacuum tube amplifiers and high-speed gyros. Each amplifier was associated with a different axis: Yaw, pitch, and roll. The high-speed gyros were more sensitive and established a base reference level of the aircraft's level flight path. Whenever the aircraft deviated from the base reference level, the autopilot adjusted for the amount of time that occurred between the changes in reference levels. This allowed the autopilot to detect the velocity and acceleration of the change. The calculated change was then communicated quickly to the control surfaces by independent electro-hydraulic servos. This led to faster, more stable corrections of the aircraft.
The faster stabilization of the aircraft by the A-5 autopilot made it possible for new bombsights to be used on military aircraft. The Norden Bombsight and Sperry Bombsight were both used onboard Army and Navy bombers during the war. Both bombsights used gyroscopes, telescopes and analog computers to calculate the release point for bombers to drop their payloads accurately onto ground targets. The A-5 had the ability to be integrated with these bombsights. Once the bombardier found the target and adjusted the bombsight, the autopilot would be engaged to fly the aircraft straight and level to the target, where the bombsight would automatically calculate the release point of the bombs.
