Air Force·Weapon system retired·In Memoriam
B-29 Central Fire Control Operator
Served: 1944–c.1960
Sat in a Plexiglas blister on a B-29 directing the aircraft's *remote, computer-aimed* gun turrets — a 1944 fire-control computer running ballistic solutions against attacking fighters.
The Story
In 1944 the US military fielded an analog computer that could shoot down a 400-knot fighter from a moving bomber. The gunner didn't aim a gun; he aimed a target *into a computer*. Nothing about that wasn't science fiction at the time.
Epitaph
“Aimed the future. Got obsoleted by the jet age that future ran on.”
Sources
- Wikipedia — B-29 Superfortressen.wikipedia.org