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Was the A6F/A-6A "first of its kind" with a digital bombing system? I
bombed from A3D-2/A-3B bombers, ours had the Norden electro-mechanical analog computer with ASB-1A bombing system radar. I heard, but never saw, that the 147xxx buno A-3B's, all delivered to Whidbey heavy attack squadrons, had a digital ASB-7 bombing system. The ASB-1A system had a 1,200' margin of error, all who were inducted into the HATWINGONE "Bulls Eye Club" were said to be victims of this error tolerance. Does anyone here know of the ASB-7 systems? I don't know how long they stayed in operation as bombers, the East coast VAH squadrons were transitioning to the Vigilante starting 1961, the West coast A-3's seem to have transitioned to KA-3B's and EKA-3B'shortly thereafter so this all digital ASB-7 probably did little bombing. Joel McEachen VAH-5 Mike Kanze wrote: Nick, I've loaned out my copy of FOTI so I can't immediately refer to it in trying to answer your question. Try I will, though. First, the setting for FOTI is the later years of the VN conflict. This is important because the A-6A was the current Intruder model at that time. The A-6E had not yet entered fleet service and some of the whistles and bells of the A system were eliminated or very greatly changed in the E system - including a couple of terrain-clearance toys that Coonts likely describes in FOTI. Second, one must remember that the A-6A was the "first" of its kind - the first aircraft with full integration of its various sensors into a digital (not analog, like the Norden bombsight) computer. In this respect it was also very much "bleeding edge." The personal computing dictum about being especially wary of Version 1 of anything could as well have been written by those of us in the A-6A. |
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