In the mid to late 1950's, I was a computer technician on fighter plane weapons systems when the computers were still analog, before digital.
The computer itself was a black box about 24x24x6, and contained maybe a dozen small servo motors that interacted with each other.
The servo motors received inputs such as true air speed, relative air density, muzzle velocity of the guns, and boiled it all down into inputs in the airplane's gun sight so the image the pilot saw in his gun sight was not the actual enemy airplane, it was a representation of where the enemy plane would be when the armament hit it.
When a servo failed and needed to be replaced, there was a lengthy alignment process to make sure all the servos were happy with each other.
That brought up an interesting situation. I was probably a Corporal at the time, and one Friday morning I'd just begun the alignment on a computer when the squadron commanding officer, a Lieutenant Colonel, came through on his Friday morning inspection tour. He stopped at my bench and seemed interested in what I was doing, so I explained the system to him. I never did figure out whether he was genuinely interested or checking to see if I knew what I was doing. Anyway, we chatted for maybe 20 minutes and he went on his way. While that was going on, I noticed my OIC, a Captain, was standing to the side giving me funny looks.
After the Colonel left, the Captain came over and asked me if I realized that was my commanding officer. I mean, I'd been in the squadron a year, why wouldn't I know that was my CO?. He asked questions and I answered them. It was that simple. I don't know why it bugged the Captain.
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo and video filesizes should be less than 5MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - An AC Model M Crawler - by Anthony West. Neil Atkins is a man in his late thirties, a mild and patient character who talks fondly of his farming heritage. He farms around a hundred and fifty acres of arable land, in a village called Southam, located just outside Leamington Spa in Warwickshire. The soil is a rich dark brown and is well looked after. unlike some areas in the midlands it is also fairly flat, broken only by hedgerows and the occasional valley and brook. A copse of wildbreaking silver birch and oak trees surround the top si
... [Read Article]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
