Achieving Accuracy: A Legacy of Computers and Missiles - Paperback

by Marshall William McMurran (Author)

"A Legacy of Computers and Missiles "is an intensively researched, photo-enhanced discussion of digital computing and missile development in the Twentieth Century, organized in two sections. (No matter what anyone has been told, virtually all of the digital machines ever designed are binary deep down inside. Number representations may have varied, but the binary logic discussed here prevails.) After a bit of early history, The Computing Section begins in earnest with Turing's Bombe used to decrypt Enigma traffic, then investigates one-by-one digital systems from early room-sized serial machines through the beginning of the modern parallel era, ending with disgustingly parallel post 2000 Super-computers. Unlike most computing histories, Achieving Accuracy deals in detail with military computing systems generally omitted for lack of definitive information. (Computer design and computer-controlled missile guidance/ submarine navigation occupied some thirty years of the Author's professional career. )

Achieving Accuracy's missile descriptions and discussions begin for weapon systems existing well before WW2 and cover virtually all US smart bombs, cruise and ballistic missiles of that century. Missile guidance systems have ranged from the V-1's dead reckoning through simple, but jammable radio-controlled, to exceedingly complex self-contained inertial guidance systems discussed at length. The reader may be surprised to learn that a "smart-bomb" flew in 1917, with several different models used in anger in WW2. The Minuteman III leg of the present Triad is described in detail along with a somewhat bizarre set of proposed basing plans for the Peacekeeper Missile that were precursors of the recently proposed "Subway" basing plan for MMIII. Missile legacy includes a sub-section, necessarily less complete, describing Soviet/Russian missilery through 2000, noting that the early Soviet ballistic missile development was based almost entirely on the German V-2.

Author Biography

About the Author BS Mathematics/Chemical Engineering, Oregon State College/University 1951 Distinguished Military Graduate, Oregon State 1951 Appointed Lieutenant USAF June 1951 Awarded Graduate Certificate in Meteorology, UCLA (USAF-sponsor) 1952 USAF Meteorologist 1952-1955 Hamilton AFB, California, Kunsan AB, Korea, Hill AFB, Utah Upon honorable discharge from USAF active duty, joined the Guidance Analysis Group, Autonetics Division of North American Aviation. Simulated Autonetics N6A Navigator gyrocompassing performance prior to the Nautilus under-pole voyage, in 1957. Programmed the first successful digital general-purpose real-time control of a shipboard inertial system. (Perhaps the first-ever real-time general-purpose, fully digital control of any complex system.) Programmed guidance and controls for the Hound Dog missile system. This work formed the basis for the later Polaris and Poseidon shipboard and A3J Vigilante navigation programs. Worked on the configuration of the Minuteman I digital flight computer (D-17). Laid out and programmed the first of the Minuteman I flight and ground control programs. Managed Autonetics Inertial Navigation Division Computer systems, Guidance Systems Engineering, and Inertial Instruments and Processes. Served as Director of Calculator Development, Hybrid Businesses, and Microelectronics Engineering, retiring as Chief Engineer of the Semiconductor Division of Rockwell International. Authored various papers dealing with computers, inertial systems and semiconductors. Author, Programming Microprocessors, 1977, Tab Books, Blue Ridge Summit, PA Author, A Comprehensive Summary of Signal Processing Devices, 1987 Rockwell International internal research document. Author, If It Weren't for People, Management Would be a Science, 1998 Institute of Industrial Engineers Flight Instructor, Commercial Pilot, Instrument-rated, Multi-engine Professional Engineer, Control Systems