bombsight

Essentially, the bombsight was a mechanical computer designed to determine the exact moment bombs needed to be released in order to hit their target,'' the magazine said.

While tests of the bombsight in perfect weather and at low attitudes assured planners that American bombers could achieve a circle error probable of 150 feet, in war conditions only 32 percent of Eighth Air Force sight-aimed bombs fell within 1,000 feet of targets.

ET/PT) - Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce play Holmes and Watson, who are hired to protect the inventor of a new bombsight from the deadly clutches of Professor Moriarty (Lionel Atwill).

The famed Norden bombsight was developed for use in Navy patrol bombers and was later adopted by the Army Air Corps.

By mid-1943, a year after the AAF began bombing German industries, it had become evident to all but the most devoted advocates of high-altitude daylight precision bombing that the actualization of this doctrine did not even come close to the prewar boast that bombers with the Norden bombsight could place a 250-pound bomb into a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet.

On another night, they cruise in a bomber over Kandahar, one flying the aircraft, the other with his eyes glued to a bombsight.

As one bombardier said, "When I'm bending over that bombsight trying to get lined up on one of those Jap ships and the bullets start coming through the windows in front of me, they take my mind off my work.

The fighting here has turned the town into a bombsight and, as in all wars, it is the children who suffer most.

Newby, lieutenant, 15th Air Force, 460th Bombardment Group, who wrote ``Target Ploesti: View from a Bombsight.

106) In addition, Canadian aircraft lacked night-vision devices and helmet-mounted bombsight "cueing" systems, the absence of which degraded the safety of their maneuvering and the effectiveness of their bombing.

Without the system, dropping non-precision weapons couldn't be done all that much more accurately than back in the days of the B-17 with the Norden bombsight.

Targets moved in the bombsight faster in the jet than in the piston-powered aircraft.

The experiences of the courageous crews are relived as the player learns to fly the huge bomber, navigate across Europe, identify targets, and operate the famous Norden bombsight.

Jim Wright, The Flying Circus, Pacific War 1943 As Seen Through A Bombsight

The luminaries at the ACTS in 1935 hardly could have guessed that Hitler would soon start a war, the laminar flow wing would succeed, radar would come within five years, the aircraft carrier that was the British Isles would survive, Hitler would attack Russia before Britain was finished, Japan would end US isolationism, the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine would turn an attack plane into an effective dogfighter with superior range, Hitler would retard fighter development, Germany would not go to full mobilization until 1943, the Norden bombsight would not have pinpoint accuracy, Ultra would enable wonderful intelligence, Luftwaffe training would go to the dogs, the German people could endure the burning of Hamburg and Dresden yet go back to factory work, and on and on.