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Just read that the original 737 autopilot used a single gyro from a company called Bendix, and it weighed over 20 pounds.
I found it in an old FAA handbook from the 70s my boss keeps in the back office. I mean, we're used to tiny solid-state units now, so seeing that stat about the old iron gyro was wild. Has anyone else come across a fact about older systems that just seems crazy today?
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dakota_gibson23d ago
Sounds like it worked fine, so who cares what it weighed.
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Yeah the old INS units for navigation were the size of a suitcase. They had to be aligned for like 15 minutes before every flight.
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