[Marc] So, today we are outside because we have a...
Joe, what is it?
[Joe] It's an air data computer.
[Marc] It takes air, and it computes something.
Actually, that's from a B-52, probably.
[Joe] That's what we suspect.
[Marc] So, we expect a gears and levers computer.
[Joe] Yes.
[Marc] Apparently this computer was first used in the F-86 Sabre, the first American
jet fighter, introduced in 1949, and which saw heavy use in the Korean War.
It was a transonic airplane, which could approach speeds close to Mach 1.
At these speeds, a computer is needed to derive accurate speed, altitude and air density measurements.
So you have the tools!
It's a solder seal?
[Joe] Yeah, I believe so.
It should be.
[Marc] I can tell you've done this before.
Oh man, that's a piece of cake for you.
Oh yeah!
Oh!
Okay, we'll see we'll tell Dave for next time.
[Dave Jones] And we're in like Flynn!
[Ken] So, it's metal tape with solder underneath?
[Joe] I believe so.
I've seen this before.
[Marc] And the good thing, is that it should be totally pretty smooth inside, right?
[Joe] It should be.
Hopefully that will just come off.
[Marc] Oh!
[Ken] Ooooo!
[Mike] Oh-oh-oh.
Oh man!
[Marc] Oh, there are springs and little wheels, and...
[Ken] Little tubes.
[Marc] Tubes?
[Ken] Yeah, over on this side.
Probably pressure.
[Marc] Oh, tubes, tubes.
I was thinking vacuum tubes.
Air tubes!
[Ken] Sorry, I had no idea you were thinking of vacuum tubes.
[Marc] And resolvers for turning the thing.
So, that's an analog computer.
[Mike] This is awesome!
[Ken] A little wind-up spring.
[Mike] Yeah!
[Marc] Early TI.
[Ken] It's kind of a weird transistor mounting, the way they're clipped in, and then the leads
are just, you know, going into the air.
Oh wait, there's a lot of corrosion here.
Corrosion, or fungus or something.
[Marc] Oh, this one developed the whiskers, over here.
[Ken] Tin whiskers?
[Mike] That looks very fuzzy.
[Marc] Yeah.
Or fungi.
[Ken] Taste it!
(laughter)
[Marc] Look at all these cams and springs.
Wow, there's a whole mechanical calculator down here.
It's the Antykithera mechanism.
And another one down here.
There are three levels of mechanical things.
Here, here, here.
And then there are the actuators.
[Ken] This reminds me of third grade, when I had this broken clock that I was trying
to fix.
And I had no idea what I was doing.
You know, it looked a lot like this, with the little tiny gears.
[Marc] Except this should be working, if we if we figure it out.
So, we found out, this is a potentiometer.
This differential gear thingy is to add a correction.
There are little adjustment screws, and it adds or subtracts little adjustments.
That's a linearization thingy.
There's another one here.
These are - they are connected to the tubes - so this must be the pressure transducers.
Ken thinks the magnetics, over here, maybe magnetic amplifiers.
These are inputs, they're generators.
They turn things.
There's one more here, there's one more there.
And then, the resolvers that read things.
And they are...
I don't see one on this face.
[Ken] And we think it's the Bendix MG-1 Air Data Computer for the F-86 Saber jet.
[Marc] And it says Computer Central Air.
Oh, and it tells you which is the static pressure, and which is the total pressure.
So we know which is which.
But it has so many connections!
So, it is a Bendix, what did you say?
[Ken] MG-1.
[Marc] MG-1.
On normal airplane, you just measure the static pressure on the side of the plane, the dynamic
pressure in the front of the plane with a little pitot tube, and you make the difference
of them all and you get your air speed.
[Ken] I think you want more accuracy if you're like, you know, dropping bombs and stuff.
[Marc] All right, so this thing must do better math.
[Mike] Wow!
[Marc] Okay, ready for the reverse engineering?
[Ken] Yeah!
While we send Ken on a reverse engineering adventure, let’s take a good look at this
marvel of electro-mechanical engineering.
Who needs electronics when gears will do.
And to operate our new toy, we’ll have to dabble into a new field for us, vintage aircraft
instrumentation, and learn a bit about fluid dynamics.
Which will keep us busy for quite a few upcoming episodes.
Thanks Joe for donating this to the Channel, this will keep us entertained for a while.