Navigation and Bombing System

The Navigation and Bombing System, or NBS, was a complex analog computer used in the Royal Air Force's V-bomber fleet. It combined the functions of dead reckoning navigation calculation with a bombsight calculator to provide outputs that guided the aircraft and automatically dropped the bombs with accuracy on the order of a few hundred meters on missions over thousands of kilometers.

Inputs to the system included late models of the H2S radar, the True Airspeed Unit, an astrocompass, the Green Satin radar, and a radio altimeter. These inputs were used to set the Ground Speed Unit, which carried out the navigation calculations, which in turn fed the NBS. The NBS, in turn, fed the Mark XIV bombsight for visual sighting, as well the autopilot systems.

References

• Bonnor, Norman (1997). "Chapter 10: From the 60s to the 80s, The Last Days of Airborne Analog Computing" (PDF). History of Air Navigation in the RAF. pp. 98–106. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)