The Norden bombsight was one of America’s top military secrets during World War II. This analog computer, when properly aimed, could place a bomb inside a 100-foot circle from four miles high. (Some even boasted that it could land bombs in a pickle barrel.) The bombardier would provide the computer with the air speed, wind speed and direction, altitude, and angle of drift. With this information, the bombsight would calculate the trajectory of the bomb.
Because of its deadly accuracy, the United States military did not want the Norden bombsight to fall into enemy hands. For security measures, bombsights were stored in locked vaults under continual surveillance. A bombsight would be loaded into a plane under supervision of an armed guard and removed from a plane immediately after landing. Crews with a bombsight onboard were sworn to protect it with their lives and destroy it if their plane was going down in enemy territory.
Thanks to modern technology, the Norden bombsight is no longer a closely-guarded secret. A decommissioned Norden bombsight can even be viewed at the Central Montana Museum in Lewistown.
Equally interesting is the Norden Bombsight Storage Building at Lewistown’s historic Satellite Airfield. The Bombsight Storage Building is made of concrete and comprised of two small rooms.
Each room is sealed behind a steel door with a combination lock. Unique to Montana, this bombsight vault offers a one-of-a-kind look into WWII history. It is the last remaining Norden Bombsite Vault in the country and it may be the last in the world.