Yesterday I went to lunch with my fellow Autonetics retirees, at least those who are left. I sat next to a fellow retiree, an old friend of mine. We spoke briefly of his experiences when he was working on the design of the test equipment used in the production of the “Houndog” missile’s G5B gyros. He also told me that the work done in the development of the G5B was done using Navy money. This leads me to speculate the Navy may have had need for the N5 IMU. At about this time the Navy was procuring carrier based bombers from NAA. I wonder if there was any connection? This information may explain the Navy depot stamp seen in the photo. He told me of the G5B gyro float balance weight adjustment procedure and described to how it was done. The gyro was operated in four different positions with respect to the gravity vector and at each of these positions, the rotor was spun in both the positive and negative sense. At each position, the magnitude of the torquer current necessary to precess the rotor while keeping the pickoff nulled was recorded. The change in float balance weights necessary to bring the float into balance was calculated from the eight values of torquer current recorded. He remembered the hectic pace of the production work for the G5B gyro and the pressure he felt whenever the production 0f the gyros slowed down. I know well what he means.
He told me the pump power frequency was 10 Hz. He doubted the float was subjected to any further machining after final assembly.
It was good to see my fellow Autonetics retires again. We made plans to meet again next year.
BRAIN DRAIN UNCLOGGED 