95th Bomb Group and the Norden Bomb Sight
Air Force Flight Test Museum
95TH BOMB GROUP PUT NORDEN TO WORK
Earned 3 Distinguished Unit Citations
The 95" Bomb Group, predecessor to Edwards AFB's 95th Air Base Wing, earned prestigious Distinguished Unit Citations in 1943 44 for bombing over Germany. The 95s B-17 Flying Fortres bombers carried a Norden bombsight in the clear Plexiglas nose.
BOMB RUN STABILITY
Let Otto do it...
When the 95th Bomb Group roared over German targets, pilots refrained from flying the bombers while the C-1 autopilot, connected to adjustments to the plane's controls. The bombardier's inputs flew the B-17 until "bombs away!", when the pilot again took over. Fliers the Norden bombsight, made smooth occasionally referred to the autopilot phonetically as "Otto, pilot."
MORE THAN A BOMBSIGHT
Norden influenced Air Force doctrine
Carl Norden's assemblage of gears, mirrors and lenses yielded an accurate device for placing bombs on target from five miles up. It was in part responsible for the confidence that led Army Air Forces planners to rely on a doctrine of daylight strategic bombardment instead of saturation bombing during World War 1 Yet the realities of war made the Norden's accuracy a bit less accurate than the heroic stories of placing a bomb in a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet. Bombs could carry aerodynamic irregularities including frozen mud from storage dumps, and the drop was only as good as the bombardier behind the sight.
MATURED AT MUROC
1935 tests validated concept
Then-Col. Henry "Hap" Arnold led a group of Martin B-10 bombers testing new Norden bombsights over Muroc-now Edwards AFB-in 1935. Results were promising, and some modifications to crosshairs and other items came out of these Muroc tests.
SPIDER-NOT!
Crosshairs were etched glass Because spider web silk was a traditional source for making crosshairs on precision optical instruments, the story persists that Norden bombsights used the output of spiders including venomous black widows. Not so, according to the wartime Army Air Forces' Bombardiers' Information File: "Crosshairs are etched on one of the lenses of the (bombsight) telescope...
LAST HURRAH
Norden in SE Asia
U.S. Navy Observation Squadron VO-67 used refurbished Norden bombsights to help place airdropped sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail circa 1968 Mounted in special P-2 Neptune patrol bombers. these were the last Nordens used in combat. The squadron conducted some of its training not far from Edwards AFB, at the Navy's China Lake facility
95th Bomb Group and the Norden Bomb Sight
Air Force Flight Test Museum
95TH BOMB GROUP PUT NORDEN TO WORK
Earned 3 Distinguished Unit Citations
The 95" Bomb Group, predecessor to Edwards AFB's 95th Air Base Wing, earned prestigious Distinguished Unit Citations in 1943 44 for bombing over Germany. The 95s B-17 Flying Fortres bombers carried a Norden bombsight in the clear Plexiglas nose.
BOMB RUN STABILITY
Let Otto do it...
When the 95th Bomb Group roared over German targets, pilots refrained from flying the bombers while the C-1 autopilot, connected to adjustments to the plane's controls. The bombardier's inputs flew the B-17 until "bombs away!", when the pilot again took over. Fliers the Norden bombsight, made smooth occasionally referred to the autopilot phonetically as "Otto, pilot."
MORE THAN A BOMBSIGHT
Norden influenced Air Force doctrine
Carl Norden's assemblage of gears, mirrors and lenses yielded an accurate device for placing bombs on target from five miles up. It was in part responsible for the confidence that led Army Air Forces planners to rely on a doctrine of daylight strategic bombardment instead of saturation bombing during World War 1 Yet the realities of war made the Norden's accuracy a bit less accurate than the heroic stories of placing a bomb in a pickle barrel from 20,000 feet. Bombs could carry aerodynamic irregularities including frozen mud from storage dumps, and the drop was only as good as the bombardier behind the sight.
MATURED AT MUROC
1935 tests validated concept
Then-Col. Henry "Hap" Arnold led a group of Martin B-10 bombers testing new Norden bombsights over Muroc-now Edwards AFB-in 1935. Results were promising, and some modifications to crosshairs and other items came out of these Muroc tests.
SPIDER-NOT!
Crosshairs were etched glass Because spider web silk was a traditional source for making crosshairs on precision optical instruments, the story persists that Norden bombsights used the output of spiders including venomous black widows. Not so, according to the wartime Army Air Forces' Bombardiers' Information File: "Crosshairs are etched on one of the lenses of the (bombsight) telescope...
LAST HURRAH
Norden in SE Asia
U.S. Navy Observation Squadron VO-67 used refurbished Norden bombsights to help place airdropped sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail circa 1968 Mounted in special P-2 Neptune patrol bombers. these were the last Nordens used in combat. The squadron conducted some of its training not far from Edwards AFB, at the Navy's China Lake facility