In 1967 I worked at Bendix Aerospace and saw this F4 autopilot on the floor
of one of the factories. I believe Bendix designed it. It is indeed an
electromechanical monster. I always wondered how they figured it out it. It
must have been a nightmare with all those layers of rods, gears, actuators,
and servos.
All the autopilots I worked on at Bendix were analog computers. Fortunately
when I started there all the new designs use the new uA709 IC OpAmps. That
was a revolutionary leap in technology. But before I could fully appreciate
the beauty of OpAmps everything changed again.
2 years later autopilots were being designed with digital logic. The
Concorde autopilot used DTL.
Then they started building B52 subsystems with ROM lookup tables. I used to
have to blow out diodes in those tiny ROM packages one bit at a time.
They were exciting times to be in electronics.
Dennis
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-----Original Message-----
From: phorphile, Sunday, January 22, 2012 9:22 AM
In the Navy in '65 I was treated to a visit inside an F4 Phantom simulator
trailor. That was one big analog electromechanical maise on wheels. Analog
computers laid the ground work for digital to take off from.
......They have heard of analog computers, sort of, but they're treated
like the redheaded stepchild. .......
