[Milsurplus] info needed on a control box BC-1156-A

[Bill Carns]

Leigh,

See the following:

http://www.netcore.us/1/afm/azonbomb.html 

AZON was an Azimuth Controlled (Azimuth Only) bomb system and consisted of a
AZON transmitter and control (Your little Joy Stick and on-off box I think)
and the receiver that was in the Bomb. The bomb was actually two axis
control but the glide angle was controlled by internal bomb gyros (powered
by compressed air) and only the left right axis could be controlled from the
dropping aircraft. It was touted as not so much a steering mechanism but a
technique to stabilize the bomb and then allow the bombardier to correct for
"deflection errors". I do not know enough about bombing to know the
difference.

Related to AN/ARW-9: controlling transmitter (also used with AZON and
RAZON).

" The bombardier had the AZON controls close to his bombsight. The controls
were all assembled in a box with an on-off switch for the transmitter and
the receivers. The receivers being located in the tail assembly attached on
the bombs. A control stick, located on the box, was used to control the
bomb's azimuth. Prior to release, the AZON receivers were powered from the
airplane's electrical system. However, upon dropping of the bomb, a battery
located inside the tail would take over."

The transmitter was a rather standard off the shelf unit that had 15 preset
frequencies and put out 25 watts. The AZON system added 475 Hz modulation
tone for "Left Rudder", 3 kHz for "Right Rudder" and 30 to 40 Hz subtone
that could be activated to light a flare in the tail of the bomb to emit
smoke after it was dropped and away from the aircraft. This helped the
bombardier see the dropped bomb in poor visibility.

Do not know much about the RAZON except it was a similar concept system but
also involved television. The RAZON system was used to control both azimuth
and Range - Hence the addition of the "R" to the AZON.

The info on the transmitter and modulation techniques came from a book "
Lost Destiny: Joe Kennedy Jr. and the Doomed WWII Mission to Save London
 By Alan Axelrod"

The AZON system saw limited use coming into play only in 1944 from February
(Burma) through November but was best noted for scheduled use on 16 missions
in Germany, France and the Netherlands - mostly against bridges. Of the 16
missions with scheduled AZON loads, 6 were scrubbed for bad WX and other
logistical reasons, two were returned to base undropped due to bad
visibility and the other 6 dropped - 5 being rated very successful. Most
were used on B-24s.

See: http://www.ausairpower.net/WW2-PGMs.html#mozTocId939018 

The truth is that the ATSC VB-1/VB-2 Azon and VB-3(1000 lb.)/VB-4(2000 lb.)
Razon Guided Bombs were the forefront of the development of the current
SMART bomb that we see today.
See: http://aafradio.org/docs/NDRCDIV5/NDRC_Division_5.html 

In short - I think you have a pretty rare winner there - a piece of real
nostalgia. They only made 15,000 total AZON units/systems and it seems far
less of the RAZON. It appears that only 3000 RAZON systems  were made later
in the war (1945) and did not see service until used on the B-29 in the
Korean war.

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
jedifox
Sent: Sunday, August 30, 2015 11:34 PM
To: Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] info needed on a control box BC-1156-A

hi all,
        i got this control box BC-1156-A from the ebay place ,i was
wondering what the rest of the system looked like and are there any circuit
diagrams around?
  thanks to all that can assist me [i already know from makings on the
bc-1156a its for azon/razon g.b ]

highest regards to all
leigh
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