They were the production model Mark 11 and a developmental prototype model Mark 15. In October of 1931 the Navy tested two Norden bombsights against each other. Early testing under low altitudes, slow speeds and ideal conditions looked promising. The first bombsight was produced in 1927 for the Navy and was classified as SECRET. Norden left Sperry in 1913 and began work on a bombsight for the Navy in 1920. He knew that war and bombings were a reality and wanted to create a bombsight that would make the bombing of enemy targets as humane as possible.Д¬arl Norden along with another inventor, Elmer Sperry, began working with the United States Navy on various projects involving the gyrostabilizer and compass. Carl Norden was a Christian man who worked to create a bombsight for humanitarian reasons.

Enter Carl Lucas van Norden, a Dutch engineer. Air Force leaders needed some way to convince the military leadership and especially President Franklin Roosevelt that strategic bombing could be made humane, in that only military targets would be hit with no or minimal civilian deaths or damage.

Strategic bombing from planes was not seen as humane in the fact that it resulted in civilian deathsВ andВ injury and other collateral damage. It was a difficult idea to justify to the military and civilian leadership. Lang, a German spy who was employed by the Norden Company in the 1930s.ДЄsВ World War IIВ loomed on the horizon, Airmen were already thinking of the possibility of creating a separate Air Force. Germany already had many of the details of the Norden, having been given them by Herman W.

By the time the United States entered the war in the European Theater it had beenВ reduced to RESTRICTED, the lowest military classification at the time. To tell the truth, it never was technically вЂњHighly ClassifiedвЂќ during the war. At the time, the Norden bombsight was probably used as much for a propaganda tool as it was a bombing tool. It was believed to be a device so valuable to the United States war effort that it was shrouded in secrecy from the beginning and heralded by many as the bombsight that won the war. Perhaps no other piece of early 20 th Century technology has generated more interest and spawned more myths and legends than the famous Norden bombsight of World War II. Number Produced: 90,000 for a total cost of $1.A Norden bombsight in the nose of a B-29 Superfortress at the Museum of Aviation. Nordens that were not calibrated had an accuracy of more like 14 mils, or a 14 foot miss for every 1,000 feet of altitude One out of every 10 Norden Bombsights produced was taken to a test facility for quality control and calibration. Norden Bombsight at the Air Heritage Museum in Beaver Falls, PAДЄccuracy: The US Navy spec was 2.5 mils - a 2.5 foot miss per 1,000 feet of altitude - at 20,000 feet a bomb should theoretically fall within 50 feet of the aiming point. WWII Norden Bombsight at the Wings of Eagles Museum in Horseheads, NYДЄ Norden Bombsight at the MAPS Air Museum in North Canton, OH One more Norden Bombsight at the Empire State Aerosciences Museum in Schenectady, NYДЄ Norden Bombsight & Manual at the Wright Museum in Wolfeboro, NHДЄ Norden Bombsight at the Quonset Air Museum in North Kingston, RI Norden Bombsight at the Mid Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PAДЄ Norden Bombsight at the Military Museum of Southern New England in Danbury, CT Norden Bombsight at the New England Air Museum near Hartford, CTДЄ Norden Bombsight at the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover, DEДЄnother Norden Bombsight at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City, NY More Norden Bombsights at other Aviation Museums throughout the northeast

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