Computers on WWII Planes?! | Curator on the Loose!

The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is one of the most historically important airplanes ever made. But did you know its guns were remote controlled through a computer system? The Museum of Flight’s B-29 has been painstakingly restored, including the computers controlling the airplane’s turrets. As far as we know, this is the only B-29 in existence with a working computer system - and our Senior Curator Matthew Burchette is here to share a demonstration!
The restoration of “T Square 54” has taken decades and is only possible thanks to a crew of dedicated volunteers who have poured blood, sweat and tears into the project. We gratefully extend a huge thank you to the volunteers who keep this history alive.
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Check out The Museum of Flight's Podcast ➡️ museumofflight.org/podcast

[@woodinville5252]

Thanks for sharing such an amazing aircraft. A lot of what you showed cannot be seen by visitors, but is nice to see that there is as much attention being given to it as the exterior. Historical preservation at it's best.

[@museumofflight]

Since we can't bring everyone inside (and since the turret computers are likely to break if we run them too long), we wanted to make sure we could bring this mostly forgotten technology out to them!

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

​@@museumofflight>>> I suspect finding off-the-shelf replacement parts is a bit difficult...😊

[@robertspence831]

Beautiful restoration on that one! Good job!

[@olsonspeed]

Good to see the B--29 under a roof and being cared for by skilled technicians.

[@museumofflight]

We can't brag enough about the dedication and expertise of our volunteer restoration crew, and the staff on the Aircraft Maintenance team.

[@cameronhilburn5628]

The Seattle radio station on the oscilloscope blew my mind!!!

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

@museumofflight >>> Great video.
I always wondered HOW the B-29's remote guns were operated. Now I know.
I also never knew the B-29 carried any kind of ECM.

[@namvet_13e]

Any equations you can solve with a digital computer could be solved with an analog computer, just with less precision. Before electronic analog computers, computations were performed with mechanical computers, such as the fire control on battleship main guns. My father used to land jet planes in zero visibility using ILS (instrument landing system) built with vacuum tubes. High tech existed before we had solid state digital computers.

[@konekillerking]

Analog computers were found in many military systems. Naval fire and control, submarines, and aircraft to name a few. And then there was that one designed by Mr. Teller.

[@JK-rv9tp]

But the B-29's fire control went a little farther, being a true fly-by-wire system a decade or two before it was tried with flight controls. I say true FBW, because it wasn't just electronic "remote control", but a system where the gunner's sight head input was electronic target data, and the computer computed and aimed the guns on an axis that was never the same as the sight head. In a FBW flight control, the stick input is just a request to make the airplane do something, and the computer moves the controls in some way that may not match the stick input.

[@abizair1832]

Imagine the bombsight parts' quality control back then, to ensure the highest accuracy possible for the bomber. Great job in restoring and maintaining it!👍

[@russellmarriott9396]

Great video, I’m so impressed by the B-29 as a design. Incredible to think it was flying in 1944.

[@besenkopf77]

That was an awesome video. Thank you for sharing!

[@Candyman-Elite-Thunder]

Still loving these amazing videos your doing Matthew! Cool insights into some amazing mechanisms that are often overlooked in these old beasts. Love the content and I appreciate the effort you and the staff at the Museum of flight put into making each of these videos!

[@jd14305]

Nice Video

[@rendavis7089]

That was fascinating. Thank you all.

[@johnclawed]

For many years I've been waiting for details of the computer, and I'm still waiting. Everything else is covered by many sources, but no one looks inside the computer.

[@museumofflight]

Do you have any specific questions about it that we can help address?

[@johnclawed]

@@museumofflight Not a specific question. I just want to see the whole thing. The "CuriousMarc" channel is a team of engineers who reverse engineered the Apollo computers and communications gear and wrote about it in complete detail. A collaboration would be extremely welcome, and would provide the documentation you need for any future repairs.

[@johnclawed]

@@museumofflight And if you already have technical manuals for the whole system then please put them up somewhere.

[@nfnworldpeace1992]

@@johnclawedi second this, as an example maybe a bad one but yeh youtuber whistlindiesel took a 1920 fort t off road and since ive always only saw it in movies calmly on roads or in museums my brain said these were weak cars but when that thing went through ditches and just took it you can really experience historical items (in this video he sadly destroys this car but yeh ) the curiousMarc channel might be able to either think of a cool way to display some of this stuff or just a better way of demonstrating. i loved the video btw!

[@middle_way47]

Russia uses that machine gun drive in its mil mi 24 helicopter, and by the way do they have a helmet that can direct the machine gun like the Apache ah-64?

[@Eric-kn4yn]

Japanese called a/c B/ SAN as a mark of respect. But pity the aircrew who bailed out over Nippon B29s were not invulnerable