Building the Future: A Cold War R&D quest
- Thread starter mouli
- Start date
- Alt. History
- Pronouns
- He/him
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
You can make it effectively solo, by expanding the scope of research and enlarging the consortium enough to be able to pick and choose what you personally address.
Ghostdevil
The Devil of Ghosts
- Location
- United States
We can make a grain silo fly decades early!! $$
- Location
- Minnesota
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
I think I'll skip voting in this one as all the options seem equally interesting.
- Pronouns
- he
[x]Science Applications International
[x]Electronics
[x]Radar
[x]Electronics
[x]Radar
- Location
- Somewhere
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X]Estimation Technologies
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
This build means that our bread and butter will be on guidance systems, which gets Interesting in 1960 -- but that we can also diversify into being a secondary contractor on fly-by-wire systems.
For department heads, in five years poach Rudolf Kalman from Columbia as head of the Control and Estimation research group, unless we are a Kalman expy -- but regardless, we're here to do state estimation all day, every day, and do the math that will put Neil Armstrong on the moon.
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- Location
- Canada
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
Came late to thread, first thought was 'Aperture Science' and absolutely thrilled to discover that was the very first post.
UAC is also a great idea, second favorite.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
Came late to thread, first thought was 'Aperture Science' and absolutely thrilled to discover that was the very first post.
UAC is also a great idea, second favorite.
Pempelune
Fanfiction Deep State
Cool start, mouli, I'll follow this with attention!
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Liberty Research Institute
We're Americans, aren't we? So I chose the most offensively american name possible
You may want to change this slightly though - it feels a bit "But of course, you already knew that", if you know what I mean.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Liberty Research Institute
We're Americans, aren't we? So I chose the most offensively american name possible
- Location
- California
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Radar: More precisely worded as electromagnetics and applied EM theory, you've worked with the electronics giants that made American radar systems and are in a position to improve on what they did. There's always money in radar…
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Radar: More precisely worded as electromagnetics and applied EM theory, you've worked with the electronics giants that made American radar systems and are in a position to improve on what they did. There's always money in radar…
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
Punchweasel
Maverick Weasel
- Location
- Central Illinois, USA
- Pronouns
- They/Him
[X] Aperture Science
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Estimation Technologies
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Liberty Research Institute
Write in names feel to memey for me.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Liberty Research Institute
Write in names feel to memey for me.
[X] Liberty Research Institute
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
[X]Electronics: You've worked in the hardware side of computing as well as the logic design bits for computing circuitry. That means you can mess about with new devices and stay abreast of what happens to be the fastest growing field in America.
[X]Automatic Control: This is something used for aircraft autopilots, missile guidance, ships and virtually any other machinery. It is, however, very theoretical. You're not going to be doing much manufacturing and testing with a mathematical controls background, so that makes the ironmongery side of things harder. Well….missile guidance is lucrative anyhow, you guess.
Turn 1: Projects
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
Turn 1: Projects
Washington D.C.1952
The radio's singing a sappy old war movie song, the cafeteria is full of drab green, and the general in front of you occasionally murmurs the lyrics before he catches himself and glares at you as if to dare you to say anything. You're here on behalf of what Teller in a fit of hubris and amusement has dubbed Aperture Science, more as a salesman than anything else. Which is why you're across from the bulldog of a man whose uniform name-patch reads LeMay, the same person who runs most of the acquisition budget in the Pentagon as of now.
"Food isn't great." Your comment gets a snort, the Air Force man seeming to ask what you were expecting. Fair point. The mashed potatoes are soggy, the bread is burned, but the coffee's decent. It wakes you up. One sip, a twist of the lips when the bitterness hits you, and you're firing on more than all cylinders again. "So, General, why call me here to the Pentagon for an early lunch? Can't be for the pleasure of my company."
LeMay twitches at your comment and glares at you again, the radio informing the two of you – and the rest of the hundred-odd officers in the mess – that you're all going to meet again someday. The general is a jowly bruiser, probably spending most of the time locked into a glare or a frown or something like it. He seems the sort. "Weiss. I didn't ask you here for the pleasure of your company, if I wanted pleasure in company I'd find a broad. What I want from you are designs. Autopilots and nav systems, radar, whatever you can get me."
"The regular contractors not cutting it for you?"
"Raytheon is busy." He grimaces as if chewing on something that tastes worse than military-issue food before continuing, "Lockheed and the rest of them have enough teething issues with the new jets. We've got most of the electronics boys committed to the northern radar line – the one to make sure Uncle Joe doesn't decide to carbonize us."
You nod, perfectly aware that the Soviets are behind on nukes and that SAC has spend more money than both other branches combined on a radar warning system in the far Arctic that's more for paranoia right now than anything else. There's money at stake here, after all. "So you want me to work on new radar designs? Ruggedization for the warning lines up north?"
"Ruggedized sets for the rotations up in Nunavut, yeah." LeMay's hands twitch to his cigar case, pause as if debating whether to smoke, and then he pulls one out and lights it up anyways. He doesn't ask about it and doesn't bother with offering you one, and you're not sure if that's because he knows you don't like them or because he doesn't like you. "You have a good record, Weiss, and Teller vouches for you. That makes you decent in my book, and we don't have a surplus of radar or electronics experts. We'll need every one we've got."
"Fair. Fair." You swirl around the dregs of the army coffee, wondering whether the caffeine will be worth braving whatever the cookery sergeants put into the bottom of the cup before deciding against drinking what remains. "So I get funding for a radar project. Sure. But it isn't just radar, and you know that as well as I do. What else is on your mind, general?"
LeMay smiles, thin lips curling upwards in a vicious grin that oddly suits his bulldog face. "The Navy's busy scrambling for funding and I want to cut them off at the knees. You know as well as I do what we can do with rockets to a ship, and I want a decent guidance radar for a rocket. You didn't hear this from me, understand?"
"So I'll get the money for this from who, then?"
"ARPA." LeMay waves a hand dismissively, "Let Bush's brainchild do something useful for once, it's done nothing we can't do as a service yet. Better yet, we make the Navy's research teams at NavWeaps look like idiots."
"I don't think I like the sound of that." You tap one finger on the coffee cup and look up at the cafeteria clock. You're ten minutes overdue on another meeting. "I don't think I want to piss off the Navy, General. With all due respect, I'm not a big fish here and I don't want to get crushed. I highly doubt my corporate sponsors will be wanting to get crushed either."
"Think about it, Weiss." The general smiles, cold-eyed and every inch the Air Force bomber baron who all but burned down Tokyo. "Think about it and let me know."
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1952
Westinghouse's offices are a tall, red-brick building that soars above the smoky atmosphere of Pittsburgh on a working day. A cabby drops you off in front of it, the secretary in the lobby flags you on inside and before you know it you're in front of the head of Westinghouse's nuclear sales division. He's short, energetic and has too damn much enthusiasm for things this early on a Monday, but he's the financer here. So when you're asked to sit down and take a cup of coffee, you do just that and wait for the man behind the big polished desk to say what he wants to say.
"Pleased to see you here, Dr. Weiss. We've had some ideas about setting up an electronics facility – the Cathode Ray Facility we've been running for the government is slated for expansion this year in fact. Anyways, back on topic." The head of sales is like a runaway locomotive, fast and unstoppable and moving erratically, "Back on topic. We have some ideas for what you can do for us, and what we're willing to fund."
"Dr. Teller told me that we were looking at reactor designs." You fold you hands on the table and set the cup on a coaster that says WG&E, the sales chief watching you from behind thin-rimmed glasses with impatience, "I have enough contacts to put together a decent team for reactor design and for work on nuclear facilities, but most of my work has been on electronics. I've already signed on with Honeywell for some of that."
Meaning that your attention is going to be elsewhere. You get a quick, sharp nod, a sheaf of paper slid across the table to you as the man in front of you informs you what it is. "Reactor designs are a broad field, Doctor, and we're intending to target the civilian market. Safe, reliable, cheap electricity. A sales pitch that writes itself, I might say."
The locations are certainly not places that speak of confidence in safety, you note wryly. Most of them are rural and isolated, most of them intending to be fed construction supplies by railroad. "This won't be cheap, first off. The technology is brand new, sir. You're not getting things easily, the AEC has most of the experts and we're making do with whoever the AEC left behind."
"The AEC can be hired on for consulting on reactor design, Doctor." He pushes his glasses up, light flashing off the lenses, "We have enough weight for that sort of decision."
You sigh, avoid pointing out that it makes your position less secure – you're not an idiot – and accept that you're the cheap alternative to the AEC. "Fair enough. So you want me to do reactor design, Honeywell wants computing and the armed forces have their own contracts."
The sales head smiles cheerily at you, "That's when you know you've made it, Doctor. You have too much business and not enough time. Good day."
You can recognize a dismissal that blunt, and leave with a folder of reactor specifications in your briefcase. Unlike some of the physicists at Los Alamos, you carefully do not leave this one on the train while heading home.
Pick two of the below 'hardware' projects to focus on as a corporate unit: One has been locked in:
[X]Reactor Design: From Westinghouse with a distinct lack of care for quality and more attention on safety, cheapness and the fact that you have a reputation for delivering rapidly. You'll have to balance the metrics of safety, cost and power output for this one, and the Westinghouse boys want a standardized design that can be used across the continental US. This is a Westinghouse project and required.
[][Air Force] Missile Guidance: You've worked somewhat with proximity fuzing and the like, and the Air Force wants to use that for building a basic guidance system for a missile. Enough that the aircraft can either mark a bearing and a target for the missile, or that the missile can coast above obstacles for a specified time to target. This is complex but lucrative, and the Air Force has the cash for it – but it'll anger the Navy to no end.
[][Air Force] Northern Radar: This is a cheap, unglamorous and often overlooked area of work – ruggedization. With the giant project of stringing a radar warning system across the northern US and the Arctic underway, the Air Force wants its radar systems to be built to take a beating in those climates while being used by draftees. That's not easy but also necessary – and your new hires will have to deal with it.
[][Westinghouse] The J40: The Westinghouse man left you a card for the head of the turbine division, and the turbine chief wants you to use your networks to put together a team for handling the teething issues in the Navy's new J40 turbine. Before the company has to leave the engine business entirely, that is. This won't be easy at all – aero engines are not your forte – but if you pull it off that leaves Westinghouse considerably in your debt.
Your personal attention is locked on:
[X]Honeywell's New Goals: Honeywell wants to set up a research center for large-scale computing, competing with IBM. The intent was for a partnership with Raytheon, but Teller and you managed to sell them on going solo with just a consultant team – now you have to deliver for them. You'll have to put together computing circuitry using the latest in analog systems, or you'll have to tap a buddy in Bell Labs and see if Honeywell wants a partnership after all… Pick one:
-[]Bell Labs: They've done the most work on the new transistor technology, and there are rumors in Germany that it can be used for radio circuits. Why not poke them and check if you can license it – or better yet if you can borrow a man or two? This is harder.
-[]Go Solo: You have a decent grasp on analog computing and you can work with vacuum tube switches to get a mainframe together. You can tap some people you know from the wartime groups for backup. See what you can do.
The above determines your hiring options for (a) Head of nuclear research, (b) Head of electronics/RF, (c) Head of Computing.
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- Location
- England
By "pick two one has been locked in", is that pick two on top of or including the locked in Reactor Design?
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
Of two one is locked in. Pick one, effectively.
I want to do the Radar one but the promise of Putting Westinghouse firmly in our pocket is very tempting. Cause if we save the J40 and deliver on the Reactor their company will be so far in our debt we might as well be CEO