APA44 Range Computer

I don't know much about this device other than the AN description:

AN/APA-44: Ground Position Indicator System; manufactured by Bell Telephone Lab.; used with AN/ASB-3 and AN/APS-23/27/31; used in B-45 (together with AN/APS-23 to form AN/APQ-24), RB-66

where ASB-3 is:

AN/ASB-3: Bomb Directing Set; manufactured by Bell Telephone Lab.; used AN/APA-44, AN/APS-23

and the APS- devices are search radars. And:

AN/APQ-24: K-1 Radar Navigation & Bombing System; used in B-36B, B-45A, B-50, B-66B

The fact that this device was used on the B-45 Tornado bomber is interesting. The B-45 was U.S.'s first jet powered bomber and the first with in-air refueling. It looked suspiciously like a World War II bomber with jet engines instead of propellers. For example, the wings were staright instead of swept back.

The B-45 is not well known today since it was limited in many areas and was fairly quickly replaced by the B-47 Stratojet bomber, the first bomber with a modern jet-based design. There were only 143 B-45's produced and they entered service in 1948 and by the early 1950's, most had been converted to reconnaissance versions, the RB-45.