Originally Posted by
tartare
Thanks for posting that Gums - really interesting.
It's intriguing that cold war special weapon carrying aircraft were automated for control from the ground to the degree that they were.
Vulcan people, correct me if I am wrong, but the Vulcan's weapons system basically allowed for bombing run and weapon release to be entirely automatic at a pre-programmed point - right?
So beyond a certain point the crew were basically just along for the ride until the weapon was released?
I believe that Pontius Navigator, in another thread, said that if everything was working and set up correctly, the crew could effectively bail out about 140 miles out.
As a ground avionics type, fairy, I know once the NBC, Calculator 3, had computed the forward throw it would generate 3 signals. The first was "lock out" when all changes that could effect the ballistics formula were ignored, the second was "doors", a finite time and finally "release". At height and depending on speed, the forward throw could be up to about 7 miles.