While writing an article for a "classic" column, I met an interesting
man who can be called the "foster father of GPS."

He is a retired USAF officer, as well as the owner of the boat I was
inspecting and photographing. While he was in the USAF, he was in
charge of "selling" the concept of a GPS satellite navigation system to
Congress. As he explained it, once the system had been invented and
tested no branch of the military wanted to fund it out of its own
budget. He was faced with the challenge of arranging cooperaton between
Congress and the various branches of the Defense Dept.

I think we're going to develop a "profile" story on this person within
the next few weeks, so I'll have permission to share more details. It's
always enlightening to realize that there are real people behind even
the most extraordinary inventions and creations, and that sometimes the
people who make something fiscally possible are as important in the
overall scheme as the people who conceived or invented the idea in the
first place.

Around 2/23/2005 8:52 PM, wrote:

and that sometimes the
people who make something fiscally possible are as important in the
overall scheme as the people who conceived or invented the idea in the
first place.

Oh, no... I'm guessing that this is going to be turned into another
"Gore said he invented the Internet!" thing.


Good luck with the story; Sounds like it'll be an interesting read.


--
~/Garth - 1966 Glastron V-142 Skiflite: "Blue-Boat"
"There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats."
-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

On 23 Feb 2005 20:52:20 -0800, wrote:

While writing an article for a "classic" column, I met an interesting
man who can be called the "foster father of GPS."

He is a retired USAF officer, as well as the owner of the boat I was
inspecting and photographing. While he was in the USAF, he was in
charge of "selling" the concept of a GPS satellite navigation system to
Congress. As he explained it, once the system had been invented and
tested no branch of the military wanted to fund it out of its own
budget. He was faced with the challenge of arranging cooperaton between
Congress and the various branches of the Defense Dept.

I think we're going to develop a "profile" story on this person within
the next few weeks, so I'll have permission to share more details. It's
always enlightening to realize that there are real people behind even
the most extraordinary inventions and creations, and that sometimes the
people who make something fiscally possible are as important in the
overall scheme as the people who conceived or invented the idea in the
first place.

I can't wait to see it.

If only because I think I know him.

Later,

Tom

I can't wait to see it.

If only because I think I know him.


Later,


Tom


************

You might. Last name is Smith. Same guy?

On 24 Feb 2005 08:56:21 -0800, wrote:

I can't wait to see it.

If only because I think I know him.

You might. Last name is Smith. Same guy?

Perhaps not - I don't think it was Smith.

Later,

Tom

wrote:
... sometimes the
people who make something fiscally possible are as important in the
overall scheme as the people who conceived or invented the idea in the
first place.


Heck yeah. After all, who do we remember as the "inventor" of the
steamboat, which was the single biggest step from a medieval economy
(everything made locally, shipping extremely expensive & laborious &
slow) to our technological/industrial one where goods are cheaply &
swiftly shipped half way around the world.

Sounds like this will be a great story.

fair Skies
Doug King

On 23 Feb 2005 20:52:20 -0800, wrote:

sometimes the
people who make something fiscally possible are as important in the
overall scheme as the people who conceived or invented the idea in the
first place.

================================

Very true. We had a guest on our boat last week who was one of the
developers of the VacuFlush marine head. The original plan was to
market it to Boeing for the 747 but it turned out that Boeing already
had their, uhhh, waste removal removal design pretty much set in
concrete, and not about to change.

Failing to interest Boeing in this modern marvel, they turned to the
marine market on the assumption that a system which used less H2O per
flush would also be slower to fill holding tanks.

On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 22:32:56 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On 23 Feb 2005 20:52:20 -0800, wrote:

sometimes the
people who make something fiscally possible are as important in the
overall scheme as the people who conceived or invented the idea in the
first place.

================================

Very true. We had a guest on our boat last week who was one of the
developers of the VacuFlush marine head. The original plan was to
market it to Boeing for the 747 but it turned out that Boeing already
had their, uhhh, waste removal removal design pretty much set in
concrete, and not about to change.

Failing to interest Boeing in this modern marvel, they turned to the
marine market on the assumption that a system which used less H2O per
flush would also be slower to fill holding tanks.

Yes, I was on the design team for Boeing as the Lead Systems Engineer.
I tried to get our head design to take off in the boating market, but
never succeded.

wrote in message

........I met an interesting
man who can be called the "foster father of GPS."



There was an interesting squib (the 'Trailing Edge' column) in the MIT
Technology Review December '04 issue that may have referencd this person.
No Smith mentioned, though. :-) These two fellows cobbled up a quick unit
to receive the signals, factor in the doppler shift, and identify the
location of the transmitter - the satellite. Their boss said "Oh, that's
nice". A few months later he got back to them all torqued up (having
obviously mentioned this doohicky to someone), and asked them if they could
reverse the process -- receive the signals, and identify the location of the
receiver. Read it at

http://www.technologyreview.com/arti...ailing1204.asp

"Some Guy" wrote in message


.........These two fellows cobbled up a quick unit
to receive the signals, factor in the doppler shift, and identify the
location of the transmitter - the satellite.

Sorry, poor editing. Forgot to include the fact that this occurred
immediately after the launch of Sputnik.