Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: missile guidance vs. CNC

Smoke wrote:

> Missiles, Missiles, missiles! I used to work on Missiles WAY back when I
> was in the Air Force. Don't want to talk about the guidance systems...even
> if I could. Was pretty interesting at the time tho'.

If you mean due to security concerns, a lot of the old stuff is declassifed.
I went through the 'museum' at Whiteman AFB, currently the home of the
B2. It used to be a Minuteman base, and had one launch control center
on the base property. That is now a museum of sorts, and you can take
a tour down into the launch center. I wish I had gotten better photographs,
it was REALLY neat, especially as the tour guide was droning on, I was
reading the labels on all the computer and communications gear in the
racks, and telling my kids "Ah, yes, an AN/UYK-7A, that's the computer
that managed deciphering and downloading the targeting data into the
missile's computer, and here's the AN/UYQ-xxx that performed the
deciphering of received teletype messages, here's the AN/Uxx that
held part of the crypto keys (pretty obvious due to the warning message
about the unit possibly containing such info) and so on. It was
real interesting to see all this incredible high-tech (for the time)
gear, and then see the coffee pots and microwave ovens sandwiched
into the existing gear. It was REALLY tight in there, nothing like the
movies. You had to duck to move around, and two people couldn't
pass each other without great difficulty.

If anyone happens to pass through the Kansas city area, Whiteman
has a base tour once a month, which included the Oscar-1 launch
site. It looks like the site may be open on more than just one
day a month.

I also got to fiddle with a Jupiter (?) missile guidance computer
some years ago. A huge tapered ring about 7' in diameter, with
thousands of little circuit boards covered with transistors and
resistors, and a drum memory toward the middle. There was
a fuss when some university got one with the inertial platform
still installed in it!

Jon