article · English
Forty-Five Pounds of Automatic Navigation
Reprinted from Sperryscope, the quarterly publication of Sperry Rand Corporation, this article describes the AN/ASN-6 Computer Set, Latitude and Longitude — a 45-pound, approximately one-cubic-foot dead-reckoning navigation computer designed and manufactured by Ford Instrument Company (Division of Sperry Rand) for USAF aircraft. The system continuously computes and displays the aircraft's present latitude and longitude by integrating true airspeed, wind speed, wind direction, and heading inputs, and also calculates course and distance to a destination. A supplementary section covers the AN/ASN-7, a follow-on airborne navigation system derived from the ASN-6 that additionally displays rhumb-line course and distance to destination.