Mark 8 Fire Control Computer: Difference between revisions

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{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2022}}

The '''Mark 8 Fire Control Computer''' was developed by [[Bell Laboratories]] during [[World War II]]. It was initially requested by the USN [[Bureau of Ordnance]] as an alternative to the Ford Instruments [[Mark I Fire Control Computer]], in case supplies of the Mk I were interrupted or were unable to be manufactured in the required numbers.{{sfn|Higgins|1982}} The Mk 8 computer used all electric methods of computation, in contrast to the Mk 1, which performed most computations via mechanical devices. The Mk 8 was found to be more accurate than the Mk 1 and substantially faster in reaching a fire control solution,{{sfn|Higgins|1982|p=232|ps=: "...The development model of the Mark 8 (Figures 9 and 10) was delivered to the Naval Research Laboratory Annex at North Beach, Maryland, on February 15, 1944, whereupon extensive comparison tests of it

and the Mark 1 were made, using both the Mark 37 and the Bell Labs Mark 7 radar as tracking devices. These tests were primarily photo-data runs, with actual aircraft (usually executing ordered manoeuvres) as targets; firing tests were not practicable at North Beach. These tests indicated that the two machines were comparable in the accuracy of the gun orders delivered, except in regions where mathematical approximations inherent in the design of the Mark1 sometimes resulted in substantial errors. (The Mark 8 geometry was substantially free of such errors.) It was also found that the Mark 8 reached solution much faster than the Mark 1. Since one of the drawbacks observed in fleet experience with the Mark 1 was its

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| url = https://www.computer.org/csdl/magazine/an/1982/03/man1982030218/13rRUxASuje

| url-access = subscription

| journal = IEEE Annals of the History of Computing

| volume = 4

| issue = 3

| date = July-SeptemberJuly–September 1982

| pages = 218-244218–244

| publisher = IEEE Computer Society

| doi = 10.1109/MAHC.1982.10026

| s2cid = 18464927

| ref = {{SfnRef|Higgins|1982}}

}}

{{Naval combat systems}}

[[Category:Anti-aircraft artillery]]