26 Apr
2016
26 Apr
'16
1:28 p.m.
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016, Noel Chiappa wrote:
I am absolutely, completely, blown away. This has got
to be one of the most
amazing projects I have ever come across. I'm utterly awed by the work you
did to reverse engineer this thing.
Everyone should check out this site - especially the detailed time-line
Thanks for the compliment - great to hear, that you like
the projects. It is/was not only great learning technically
but also getting in touch with intersting people during the
recent years. I visited the UK three times with a bias
towards meeting old hands from the dawn of airborne
computing which was really exciting.
I am also fascinated that some of the old architectures (like
the Elliott 900 which emerged in 1961) probably still serve
today after 50+ years (e.g. in Tornado's auto pilot or some early
B747-100s). I do not think any iWHATEVER will last longer than
20 years ;-) I think those exotic architectures/items are worth
beeing preserved and documented - especially as no one else is
taking care of them as e.g. is done for PDPs, Apples, HPs etc.
On the world there is probably only my 12 bit freely programmable
Elliott 900 still alive, I know of as little as 6 Rolms (privately
owned, all variants) and less than 5 of the inertial navigators.
BTW I still do not know whether the digital computer in the
inertial navigation system FIN-1010 is related to any civil
system made by Ferranti. I guess it is derived from the Pegasus
or Argus computers and therefore may be even more archaic. As
you see - the story will go on...
The very best,
Erik.
P.S. Tribute to inertial navigation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EQqfxiGgd8