Norden Bombsight
Photographs of a Vintage Norden Bombsight

The following description is from contributor E. L. Beck:

"Some years ago a co-worker of my sister had a father who served as a bombardier on a B-17 crew. When his father passed away, this co-worker inherited the sight, didn't know what to do with it, and passed it on to my sister since he knew her (my) father served in the AAF as well. My sister gave the sight to my father as a gift one Christmas. She, like all of us in the family, are intrigued by complex devices, and this mechanical geometric computer for three-dimensional space certainly fills that bill.

"However, my dad served in the 52nd Air Transport so he had no personal connections to Nordens, which meant that after he researched its operations and toyed with it for awhile, the sight simply sat in a closet some more.

"I don't have any more details on the origins of this Norden bombsight since I don't know the co-worker's identity, and my sister has since passed away. However, according to information on twinbeech.com, this sight appears to have retained its AGLD bubble levels, making it a rare find.

"I suspect this sight is not the exact unit my sister's co-worker's father used, but one that sat in the repair depot, thus never upgraded... and perhaps never inventoried, which is how we walked off the base with it at war's end."

Authors:

• none listed

Published:

• undated

Categories:

• Aircraft, Equipment

Locations:

Contributors:

• E. L. Beck

Repositories:

• Private Collection

Direct Link (Item 000577):

• https://aafcollection.info/items/list.php?item=000577

Citation:

• Army Air Forces Collection, "Norden Bombsight: Photographs of a Vintage Norden Bombsight" (item 000577), AAF Collection, https://AAFCollection.info/items/list.php?item=000577 (accessed 19 April 2024).

Added: March 16, 2014

Photographs of a Norden bombsight, originally obtained from the family of a B-17 bombardier. 0.2Mb 2 pages; PDF (.pdf) Original item: Photo Resolution: 100 dpi Quality: 70%

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