1944 Automatic Gun Director

1944RadioCraft11944RadioCraft2Eighty years ago this month, the February 1944 issue of Radio Craft gave some description of the automatic gun director system illustrated here. The system consisted of a computer (undoubtedly analog) that directed the gun exactly where to fire. The path of the plane was plotted by two telescopes, whose operators kept the plane in the cross hairs for a few seconds, to plot the aircraft’s location, speed, and direction. Height was measured in a similar manner, and the computer had inputs for wind direction and velocity, muzzle velocity, and air pressure. The result was a gun that was able to aim itself to the spot where the plane would be when the shell arrived.