In 1935, he was promoted to Brigadier General, one of four in the Army Air Corps at that time, and was given command of the Materiel Division at Wright Field; for the next four years, he would push for increased funding for research and development, as well as key technologies such as B-17s, the Norden bombsight, and the high-octane gasoline that would later power the fighters of World War II in the European and Pacific theaters.
Once the Lotfernrohr 7D bombsight was introduced — with a similar degree of accuracy to the top secret American Norden bombsight — more accurate bombing from 3,000 metres (9,840 feet) could take place with an error range of just 91 metres (300 feet).
Sperry was a military-related industry, and its work in developing both electrically powered gun turrets for bombers and the Norden bombsight brought him to the attention of his godfather, General Arnold, by then the Chief of the United States Army Air Corps.
The company continued to operate from the factory after his death in 1920, at one point making components for the World War II era Norden bombsight.
One such military component was the top secret Norden bombsight, used for dropping bombs accurately from airplanes in World War II.
The IIB bomber lacked radar or any other modern nav/attack systems, weapons being aimed by the bombardier in a glass nose section with a World War II-vintage Norden bombsight.
Norden bombsight | Norden | Frederic Louis Norden | John Norden | Denis Norden | Coop Norden | D/S Norden | Bombsight | bombsight | Bengt Nordén |
While the German bombsights of the 1930s were quite lacking, the follow-on versions of the Lotfernrohr 7 proved to be arguably as accurate as the American Norden bombsight.
The Carl Zeiss Lotfernrohr 7, or Lotfe 7, was the primary bombsight used in most Luftwaffe level bombers, similar to the United States' Norden bombsight, but much simpler to operate and maintain.