Because of my familiarity with radio propagation and, in particular, with atmospheric refraction, I became involved in a proposal for a missile that would attack Airborne Early Warning (AEW) aircraft (it was to beam in on the radar signals). The problem was interesting at first, but I lost interest when I learned that the missile was to carry an atomic warhead. That, and my interest in developing a theory of electromagnetics (a long time hobby, but one that didn't occupy an appreciable amount of my working time) probably had something to do with my being given a choice shortly after of terminating or accepting a demotion; since I wasn't ready to retire I accepted the demotion. Many employees were being laid off at that time.
I was not through making contributions. About 1975 I became involved with the group responsible for assembling their IR&D report (the In House Research and Development Report). These are sent to the military where they are passed around representatives from the different services who score the various proposals according to their interests. The services then contribute money to the projects on the basis of the scores, so the reports are important.
That year I wrote up plans for a Fourier Signal Analyzer, for use in the high kilohertz range, that would use the new "charge-coupled-device" (CCD) technology. I also interviewed two other engineers, one of whom proposed a novel scheme for recognizing targets using infra-red signatures and the other proposed a small digital computer for use in missiles, and combined all three projects in one report. The report received a 9.34 out of a possible 10 score and the three of us were congratulated for having the highest score in all of Hughes!
The device operated as predicted except that there was some difficulty in obtaining satisfactory CCDs during the time I was involved with the project, so the inherent noise of the unit was higher than desired.
It is interesting that, at about the same time, other Hughes groups were implementing a Fourier Transformer using Surface-Acoustic-Wave (SAW) devices. These provided operation at much higher frequencies (I saw a demonstration of one at Fullerton that displayed all of the local TV stations).
For the remaining time at Hughes I was involved mostly with studies related to the computer recognition of images. The goal of the program was to try to improve the aim of long range missiles. For example, if a missile could be made to enter a specific window of a target building much smaller warheads could be used to destroy the target. Under ideal circumstances the solution is not difficult, but the difficulties are multiplied by the necessity of coping with variations in the approach path, time of day, weather, season, etc. The project probably evolved into the guidance used on cruise missiles in the Gulf conflict (but other missiles were guided to their targets by following terrain variations that had been collected using UNAMACE or successor devices.)
On to Some Observations on Hughes
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