The story of Argus’s production of autopilot equipment for Sperry shows how the discovery of the identity of one item can lead to a much broader story. In this case, the picture of a small dialed instrument led to the history of an Army-Navy rivalry that matched the Argus picture in an eBay auction. It was identified as an A. C. Delco product, but was exactly the same in form and size, so we did a “buy-it-now.”

Once it was in hand we were able to determine that it was part of the Sperry A-5 Autopilot system, the “Navigator’s Turn Control.” Shortly afterward we discovered a picture in a wartime Argus annual report that showed a somewhat larger instrument whose face clearly said “A-5.” We were able to find one of these on eBay as well, and discovered that it was the “Pilot Director Indicator” of the A-5 syst, the Norden Bombsight, and the British Lancaster Bomber.

Page 26 of the Argus 1946 report shows an item identified as a “turn control.” After looking at hundreds of similar things on “warbird” websites, in on-line auctions, and at military collector shows, we found something em. It too was labeled “A. C. Delco.”

The broader story began in the late 1930’s, when the Navy controlled the manufacture of the Norden bombsight at the New York City factory. Production problems lead to a shortage, causing the Navy to suspend shipments of the Norden to the Army Air Force. In desperation, the Army turned to the Sperry S-1 bombsight, which was used in conjunction with the Sperry A-5 autopilot. Sperry contracted with General Motor’s A. C. Delco division to manufacture the A-5.

By the time wartime production had peaked, the Army and Navy had agreed on a hybrid autopilot design called the C-1, which was manufactured by Honeywell Regulator in Minneapolis. But by this time the British had built Sperry-made autopilots into their Lancaster bombers, and some American bombers still used them, so Sperry and A. C. Delco continued autopilot production.

Long after the war, Henry Black (now deceased), a British student of the history of the Lancaster Bomber, tracked down the manager of the A. C. Delco autopilot line in Flint, Michigan, George A. Krepps. He asked him how he had managed the autopilot production demands of the war. Krepps revealed that A. C. Delco had farmed out much of the work to “12-15 sub-contractors of diverse backgrounds, such as the manufacturers of pinball machines, cameras, typewriters, and thermostats.”

So that’s the how an A. C. Delco autopilot component ended up in a post-war Argus shareholder report.