HD1978MEA

Flight Control IR&D 1978

Internal Research and Development of Digital Flight Control Electronics to replace Analog.

Application -- a future Missile X.

It was becoming evident that Hardness requirements, the ability to with stand increased nuclear radiation during flight, would be imposed on any new inter-continental missile -- and that some new “missile X” would be required. (The subsequent MX=Missile X had not been planned.)

I decided, after much thought, that the only way to survive increased hardness requirements would be to change to digital electronics as they could still operate after much higher doses of radiation. When this was proposed as something we should be doing. I was told, “go ahead.” I responded, “but I don’t know anything about it, my background is mechanical, my experience is with hydraulics and rocket engine controls systems. It’s a recommendation of what someone should do.” Smilingly they said, “since when did not knowing about something stop you -- besides, who else knows about this kind of thing, our electronics is mostly analog. If you believe in it, do it.”

I was allowed to use space in the analog electronics lab and have the help of a technician. Later a young engineer, Karl Lofgren, on special training funding was assigned to work with me. Karl had a masters in electronics engineering from MIT and went on to become chief scientist at Western Digital. The following diagram was made prior to his arrival, in fact this proposition is what gained his assistance.

Fig 1 MEA=Missile Electronics Assembly; Internal Research & Development task 04-27-78 by D Landau

To the right, see figure 2, is the Vehicle Electronics as compared to the Test Electronics on the left, see figure 3. This proposition was before the availability of microprocessors and before the advent of personal computers. This design was making use of the latest the electronics industry could provide which was 4 bit arithmetic units, and associated logic elements. The largest RAM available was 64 bits, either in series as a single bit or as 4 parallel bits. Hand calculators were new and one was rebuilt to serve as input output for this design development -- they had a keyboard and display.

Fig 2 AVE=Avionics Vehicle Equipment, right half

Fig 3 STE=Special Test Equipment, left half

I knew from the beginning I was getting in over my head. But there was no other work. I’d hired in as a Research Engineer and assigned to an extreme temperature hydraulic controls test lab doing work for the Navaho missile. That work ended with a layoff of 4000 people in one day. I was kept on to do follow on work for the pending B-70 supersonic aircraft which used 4000 psi high temperature systems. When the Minuteman contract was won, I was assigned as lead engineer for hydraulic power elements for stages I, II, and III tilting nozzle controls. When Minuteman II came I was assigned as lead engineer for the secondary injection attitude control system for stage II, where Freon was squirted into the hot gas coming out the nozzle to control thrust attitude. My entry into Minuteman III happened abruptly -- I was told to report to Minuteman Systems building where I was to help evaluate a proposal. It turned out that Don Jones from Space Division and I were to write a specification for a PBPS, Post Boost Propulsion System, for on top of a minuteman. This became Minuteman III, with an enlarged stage II to make room for the size needed for the PBPS. The PBPS was a system of 13 bi-propellant rocket engines used to deploy three newly designed Hydrogen Bombs. After the proposal I stayed on a supervisor of System Requirements and Integration of the PBPS. When that contract was completed, all but 7 of 75 persons on that program were laid off. I had gone from Sr Engineer to Engineering Specialist before the PBPS effort. After close down of the PBPS I was given an MTS VI classification -- good title, good pay, no job....

Thus my entry into electronics was an attempt to look ahead at what would be needed and try to get a head start on competition from other companies for a new contract. The company did win the MX contract for a new Digital computer -- and to incorporate Digital Flight control electronics into it. This IR&D effort was a success. The customer was sold on the concept -- in no small measure due to this effort and related contacts with TRW then serving as advisor to the AF for the pending MX proposal. It became understood that the MX would use digital electronics. Many hours were spent briefing them on it’s merits and architecture. The above spans events prior to and following the effort to be described here -- of how to create a digital controller for a pending MX missile.

I had become aquatinted with electronics in order to perform remote instrumentation and control of systems and devices in the Extreme temperature test lab during the Navaho Program. Ideas that were to go into the MEA electronics came from testing missile controls systems. The purpose of this description is to tell how this Digital Flight Control Electronics came about -- when half way done I was told by Dr O’Kief of TRW that I’d designed a digital computer -- only I didn’t know it. He had refrained from telling me that he had a Ph.D. in Computer Sciences -- because what we were doing was ahead of what they were teaching in school. I had only been moving with the flow, taking classes after hours from people such as the chief engineer at our Micro Electronics division at our plant site. I was also acquiring the latest literature from semiconductor suppliers on their newest products. My text was a book on Digital Electronics from a book store. The technology was moving very fast. I, a perfect stranger to digital electronics, was able to make an end run on those who’s trade was electronics. Digital was still that new -- everyone was learning, though at the time I felt way behind everyone else. I was not aware of indeed being on the leading edge of what could be done with the technology at hand.

To be continued -- if I ever get around to it.