History
The first US radar network used voice reporting to the 1939 Twin Lights Station in New Jersey, and the post-WWII experimental Cape Cod System used a Whirlwind I computer at Cambridge to network long-range and several short-range radars. The key Whirlwind modification for radar netting was the development of magnetic core memory that vastly improved reliability, operating speed (×2), and input speed (×4) over the original Williams tube memory of the Whirlwind I. The AN/FSQ-7 was based on the larger and faster Whirlwind II design, which was not completed and was too much for MIT's resources (Lincoln Laboratory Division 6 still participated in AN/FSQ-7 development). Similar to the Q7, the smaller IBM AN/FSQ-8 Combat Control Central was produced without an Automatic Initiation Area Discriminator and other equipment.
"The experimental SAGE subsector, located in Lexington, Mass., was completed in 1955…equipped with a prototype AN/FSQ-7…known as XD-1" in Building F. The third evaluation run with the XD-1 was in August and the prototype was complete in October 1955 except for displays. By 1959, the 2000th simulated BOMARC intercept had been completed by the Q7, while the Cape Canaveral BOMARC 624-XY1's intercept of a target drone in August 1958 used the Kingston, New York, Q7 "1500 miles away". DC-1 at McGuire AFB was the first operational site of the AN/FSQ-7 with consoles scheduled for delivery Aug-Oct 1956. Groundbreaking at McChord Air Force Base was in 1957 where the "electronic brain" began arriving in November 1958.
The "SAGE/Missile Master test program" conducted large-scale field testing of the ATABE "mathematical model" using radar tracks of actual Strategic Air Command and Air Defense Command aircraft conducting mock penetrations into defense sectors (cf. Operation Skyshield). The vacuum-tube SAGE network was completed (and obsolete) in 1963, and a system ergonomic test at Luke Air Force Base in 1964 "showed conclusively that the wrong timing of human and technical operations was leading to frequent truncation of the flight path tracking system" (Harold Sackman). Backup Interceptor Control Systems (BUIC) were used to replace the AN/FSQ-7s: two remained at SAGE sites until 1983 including McChord AFB, and the Q7 at Luke AFB was demolished in February 1984.
The SABRE airline reservation system used AN/FSQ-7 technology, and some Q7 components were used in the 1960s TV series The Time Tunnel. The Computer History Museum displays several AN/FSQ-7 components.
Read more about this topic: IBM AN/FSQ-7 Combat Direction Central
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