[SIGCIS-Members] whirlwind, radar and real-time tracking

[Chuck House]

I interviewed Les Earnest for the Cisco Foundation in 2014, supported by the Computer History Museum.
This was a couple of years after the 'official CHM interview' by Dag Spicer

It might add a bit of color to the story you are chasing

Chuck House 
www.innovascapesinstitute.com <http://www.innovascapesinstitute.com> 
www.anywhereanytime.io/covid19 <http://www.anywhereanytime.io/covid19> 
 

 
http://innovascapes.blogspot.com
805-570-6706
 
 

On 4/23/21, 4:28 PM, "Members on behalf of Pierre Mounier-Kuhn" <members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org on behalf of mounier at msh-paris.fr> wrote:

    Hello Guy,

    As you certainly know, Whirlwind is considered to be the first digital computer designed for real-time computing, particularly for radar tracking and interception guidance or assistance to tactical decision. 

    I have studied air-defense systems in Europe, particularly in France: The first projects involving digital computers did not appear before the mid-1950s, at IBM France and in a small Paris company, SEA, which was also developing digital control devices for machine-tools. At that time, several similar digital computing projects were being developed, in the USA of course (at GE, in the US Navy with Univac, etc.) but also in Britain and in the USSR.

    It is true that "innovations like this rarely occur in a complete vacuum": The Whirlwind was built at MIT, one of the world's richest environments for innovation in electronics and defense systems, which had worked on a previous analogue calculator project for the US Navy. Air defense systems already existed, based on radars, telecom lines, control rooms and command centers: The idea to replace manual operators with a computer to process signals and make decisions faster "naturally" came to various people in the context of the Cold War. The Whirlwind was nevertheless a leap forward in technology, logical design and use.

    Hoping that these simple remarks help you.
    Best,
    Pierre Mounier-Kuhn   
    CNRS & Sorbonne Université, Paris  


    ----- Mail original -----
    De: "Guy Fedorkow" <guy.fedorkow at gmail.com>
    À: "members" <members at sigcis.org>
    Envoyé: Vendredi 23 Avril 2021 22:41:03
    Objet: [SIGCIS-Members] whirlwind, radar and real-time tracking

    Greetings Colleagues,
       I've been working on restoring a 1951 Whirlwind program, written at 
    MIT, used to demonstrate real-time tracking of aircraft with radar for 
    the purposes of guiding an interception (the Cold War was in full flight 
    in the 1950's).  This work ultimately led to the massive SAGE air 
    defense network in the US.
       You can see some rather informal preliminary notes on the work at
    https://www.historia-mollimercium.com/whirlwind/WW-Track-while-Scan-Draft-Notes-v1.pdf
       The program does work in simulation; you can see a four-minute video 
    of the simulator running an intercept at
    https://www.historia-mollimercium.com/whirlwind/Track-while-scan-Apr-23-2021.mp4
       Spoiler alerts: The original really did display moving dots on a CRT, 
    but the graphics are "spartan" to say the least.  And nothing in 
    particular happens when the intercept actually happens.

       Would anyone know of contemporaneous work involving digital computers 
    for either radar tracking or real-time computing around 1951?  I think 
    all the familiar digital computers from those years were used in 
    applications where batch operation was perfectly acceptable, e.g., 
    computing ballistics tables.
       Innovations like this rarely occur in a complete vacuum, but I don't 
    see references to any similar digital computing projects.
       If anyone has pointers, do let me know!
    Thanks
    Guy Fedorkow


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