Carl Norden, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Carl Norden

American engineer

Date of Birth: 23-Apr-1880

Place of Birth: Semarang, Indonesia

Date of Death: 14-Jun-1965

Profession: engineer, inventor

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Carl Lucas Norden (April 23, 1880 – June 14, 1965), born Carel Lucas van Norden, was a Dutch engineer widely known for having invented the Norden bombsight. Norden was born in Semarang, Java.
After attending a boarding school in Barneveld, Netherlands, he was educated at the ETH Zürich in Switzerland.
He emigrated to the United States in 1904. Along with Elmer Sperry, Norden worked on the first gyrostabilizing equipment for United States ships, and became known for his contributions to military hardware.
In 1913, he left Sperry and formed his own company.
In 1920, he started work on the Norden bombsight for the United States Navy.
The first bombsight was produced in 1927.
It was essentially an analog computer, and bombardiers were trained in great secrecy on how to use it.
The device was used to drop bombs accurately from an aircraft, supposedly accurate enough to hit a 100-foot (30 m) circle from an altitude of 21,000 feet (6,400 m), but such an accuracy was never achieved in combat. Norden died in Zürich, Switzerland in 1965. He was enshrined in the US National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 1994.