"Ralph_S" wrote in message
ups.com...

There was a similar issue with the A-6A. It had an avionics fit in
which the radar and navigation equipment were coupled to a computer.
The system was called DIANE, for Digital integrated Attack/Navigation
Equipment. The computer used a rotating drum memory. This was a rather
bulky affair, protruding into the cockpit. It basically sat between the
B/N's legs.

It wasn't a coincidence that the/an engineer at Litton that designed it
had a daughter named Diane. I never heard anyone use that name. To us it was
always just the Q-61. Actually, between the B/N's legs was the aft ped (aft
pedestal unit) that had the joystick and keypad. In front of that was the
center ped and in front of that was the forward ped or drum. It weighed 86
lbs and had just short of a gazillion stationary read/write heads that had a
tendency to get knocked out of alignment on cat shots and arrested landings.
Changing out drums was a lot of fun. Because integrated circuits didn't
exist when it was designed, each flip-flop or bit was a circuit with
physical transistors, resistors, diodes and capacitors. I think a flip-flop
card had only two bits on it. There were a lot of them and other cards, like
logic gates. Probably about half of them were contained in another bulky
box, the Left Hand Unit. It was hidden behind the Left Hand Panel. I think
most of the rest of the brains were in the Center Console Unit, another
bulky box to the left of the B/N's left foot. Something usually broke on
every flight.

Stan, former AQ
(domain slightly misspelled in email address)