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Glenn’s Computer Museum

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Figure 1: M1 Toss Bomb Computer
Figure 3: M1 Toss Bomb Computer
Figure 5: M1 Toss Bomb Computer
Figure 7: M1 Toss Bomb Computer
Figure 2: M1 Toss Bomb Computer
Figure 4: M1 Toss Bomb Computer
Figure 6: M1 Toss Bomb Computer

M1 Toss Bomb Computer

The M1 Toss Bomb Computer seems to have been used on the Canberra B-57 bomber, but I can find little documentation about it. We don't have the computer itself, but do have its cockpit control panel and its gyro.

Interestingly, it seems to be the subject of a patent suit between the manufacturer of our devices (Mergenthaler) and SAAB. Figure 5 shows the first page of the Mergenthaler patent (filed 1961). It contains a good explanation of the physics of toss bombing and how the appropriate calculations could be done using 1960 technology.