Technician balancing Hughes Aircraft Company's "Digitair", the first airborne digital computer, ca.1950

Photograph of Hughes Aircraft Company's "Digitair", the first airborne digital computer, ca.1950. A man in a lab coat and santitation hat looks through a magnifying lens set on his glasses as he tinkers with a spherical computer.; Photoprint reads "Up in the Air this Brain is on Firm Ground. In a dust-free assembly area of El Segundo, California plant this technician balances memory drum of Hughes Aircraft Company's Digitair, first airborne digital computer to go into actual production, as it rotates on jets of air. Computer will see service in Air Force all-weather jet interceptors, fly them automatically through entire supersonic combat from take-off to touchdown, freeing the pilot for tactical decisions".