Contacting altimeters, release height, and anti-aircraft fire

Meredith proposed a contacting altimeter that would illuminate a cue at bomb-release height and could be paired with the gyroscopic release. Opponents worried that pilots would become dependent on a device that might fail and argued that a 200- or 300-foot variation scarcely affected accuracy. Langley supported the system partly because controlling release height could reduce exposure to a warship's anti-aircraft barrage, a tactical concern the committee largely accepted as an unavoidable risk. Proposals to set sea-level pressure by descending or timing a practice bomb repeated the impractical assumptions already exposed in the wind debate.