- Reverse-engineering an analog Bendix air data computer: part 4, the Mach section (righto.com)
In the 1950s, many fighter planes used the Bendix Central Air Data Computer (CADC) to compute airspeed, Mach number, and other “air data”. The CADC is an analog computer, using tiny gears and specially-machined cams for its mathematics. In this article, part 4 of my series,1 I reverse engineer the Mach section of the CADC and explain its calculations. (In the photo below, the Mach section is the middle section of the CADC.)