Hi Jos!
in the UK around 1960 the Argus 200 was developed to
control the Bristol
Bloodhound anti-aircraft rocket. This computer was one of the very first
transistor-based control computers.
Absolutely - in these days Ferranti and Elliott where competitors on
the European market for defecne computing! Very funny, that they later
merged and today the legacy of both is distributed in the BAe and
Leonardo businesses ;-)
There are quite interesting stories, on occasions when the two had to
cooperate before merging and in the ELDO project mentioned in my video,
the computer was from Elliotts whereas the inertial sensor was from
Ferranti (
https://youtu.be/v-gF5g0nnoE?t=363).
In Switzerland the Bloodhound was on duty?? until 1999
! One of the sites,
once top secret,?? is now a museum, and well worth a visit.
Check out
https://www.museums.ch/org/de/Bloodhound-Lenkwaffenstellung
Definitively worth a visit! I am also into the Ferranti navigation systems
years I am trying to find
out, what architecture its 32 bit computer is.
Here I booked an extensive special tour and the team on mount Gubel organized
some experts to join the tour - although I learned that the INS computer
is not related to the Argus series, the visit was AMAZING!
Also great there to see the technology of the almost Mach3 missile from
the 1950ties.
Erik.