This rare industrial film GUIDEPOSTS TO TOMORROW presents a history of the Sperry Company and the story of Elmer Sperry and his incredible invention, the gyroscope. The film shows rare images of the USS Delaware, the first ship to have gyro stabilization. The gyro stabilizer (seen at the 2 minute mark) revolutionized stability at sea. At 2:28, there is a montage of ridiculous old aircraft footage, ending with shots of Lawrence Sperry demonstrating an autopilot aboard an aircraft. The onset of World War I is seen at 3:30. The airplane would be an experimental platform for Sperry, as seen at the 4:24 mark, including the first guided missile, an aerial torpedo seen at the 4:38 mark known as the Kettering Bug.

An early seaplane the NC-4 is seen at the 5:27 mark, this aircraft was equipped with a gyro meter. Sperry instruments are seen aboard ocean liners at the 5:50 mark including an automatic pilot.

At 6:08, Lawrence Sperry lands an aircraft at the U.S. Capitol building. Jimmy Doolittle is seen performing blind landings using Sperry instruments including the directional gyro at 6:30. Wiley Post is shown ending his world flight, made possible by the automatic pilot, which is further seen on the DC-3.

At 08:00, various Sperry products for WWII are seen including bomb sights, gun sights, and radar, kleistron, Loran, sonar, etc. Radar gun sights are also seen in Korean War at 8:59, and the Skysweeper anti-aircraft gun is shown and MPQ-10 mortar tracker.

Sperry also added navigation to the B-47 seen at 9;30 — a true autopilot. At 10:20, a Vought Cutlass is seen firing an anti-aircraft missile at a target aircraft. At 10:42, a Polaris missile submarine is shown with its Sperry supplied computers. Talos and Terrier are also seen along with the Army’s Sergeant missile. The B-58 Hustler is shown with its advanced missile systems.

At 11:50, various gyros are seen including frictionless electron gyros. At 12:10, a mock-up of a spacecraft control panel is seen, with an astronaut wearing a pressure suit.

Sperry Corporation (1910−1986) was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Through a series of mergers it exists today as a part of Unisys, while some other of its former divisions became part of Honeywell.

The company was founded in 1910, as the Sperry Gyroscope Company by Elmer Ambrose Sperry to manufacture navigation equipment, chiefly his own inventions—the marine gyrostabilizer and the gyrocompass at 40 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Downtown Brooklyn. During World War I the company diversified into aircraft components including bomb sights and fire control systems. In their early decades, Sperry Gyroscope and related companies were concentrated on Long Island, New York, especially in Nassau County. Over the years, it diversified to other locations.

In 1918, Lawrence Sperry split from his father to compete over aero-instruments with the Lawrence Sperry Aircraft Company, including the new automatic pilot. In 1924, following the death of Lawrence on December 13, 1923, the two firms were brought together. The company became Sperry Corporation in 1933. The new corporation was a holding company for a number of smaller entities such as the original Sperry Gyroscope, Ford Instrument Company, Intercontinental Aviation, Inc., and others. The company made advanced aircraft navigation equipment for the market, including the Sperry Gyroscope and the Sperry Radio Direction Finder.

The company prospered during World War II as military demand skyrocketed, ranking 19th among US corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. It specialized in high technology devices such as analog computer–controlled bomb sights, airborne radar systems, and automated take off and landing systems. Sperry also was the creator of the Ball Turret Gun mounted under the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator, as commemorated by the film Memphis Belle and the poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner. Postwar, the company expanded its interests in electronics and computing, producing the company’s first digital computer, SPEEDAC, in 1953.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com