Thread: Auto pilot
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Old 12th July 2021, 18:23
RSwank RSwank is offline
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Re: Auto pilot

Interesting question regarding the autopilot and there does seem to be conflicting information on the web. There were two competing bombsight/autopilot combinations before 1943 which were used in heavy bombers. There was the Norden bombsight paired with a C-1 Honeywell autopilot and a Sperry bombsight (S-1? Or T-1?) paired with a Sperry A-5 autopilot. According to this link:
https://aeroantique.com/products/aut...nel-a-5-sperry

“The A-5 Automatic Pilot was used primarily in WWII-era bomber aircraft of the Air Corps US Army such as the Consolidated B-24 Liberator (see photo showing the location of the panel in the B-24 cockpit). The A-5 system appeared in aircraft manufactured during or before 1943, the year when the Honeywell C-1 system became the standard autopilot system for large multi-engine aircraft. Theoretically, the A-5 system may also have appeared in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress as well as bomber-trainer aircraft, but we've not yet found documentation to support this assumption. The A-5 was normally paired with the Sperry T-1 Bomb Sight system.”

So what they are saying is that the A-5 autopilot was used (they think exclusively) on B-24s. After 1943 the C-1 would have appeared in both B-17s and B-24s.
Here is another link that seems to imply something similar:
http://www.glennsmuseum.com/bombsigh...y_s1_incl.html

On this link (see page 67) is mention of the November, 1943 decision to standardize on the C-1 autopilot paired with M series Norden bombsights: http://www.robertoharder.com/pdfs/MH...ENBOMB-RHC.pdf
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