Posted on 05/15/2008 4:13:48 PM PDT by blam
Fifty years of DARPA: Hits, misses and ones to watch
18:00 15 May 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Duncan Graham-Rowe
The internet: Precisely who 'invented' the mass of linked computer networks that is today's internet is a moot point. But it wouldn't have happened without the ARPANET network built by DARPA in the 1960s. The idea was to make a "self-healing" communications network that still worked when parts of it were destroyed. It was the first network to transmit data in discrete chunks, not constant streams, and led to the development of the TCP/IP specification still in use today.
GPS: We would be quite literally lost without today's global positioning system (GPS). But long before the current NAVSTAR GPS satellites were launched, came a constellation of just five DARPA satellites called Transit. First operational in 1960, they gave US Navy ships hourly location fixes as accurate as 200 metres.
Speech translation: Although not yet available to consumers, handheld language translation devices developed with DARPA funding are already being used in Iraq. Although accuracy can be as low as 50%, the devices have met with favourable reviews from forces on the ground.
Stealth Planes: It's probably the best example of DARPA fulfilling its remit to come up with "surprise" technologies – even the US Air Force was surprised by the idea. The first prototype, Have Blue, was tested in the late 1970s and became the precursor to F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter.
Gallium Arsenide: One of DARPA's lesser known accomplishments, semiconductor gallium arsenide received a push from a $600-million computer research program in the mid-1980s. Although more costly than silicon, the material has become central to wireless communications chips in everything from cellphones to satellites, thanks to its high electron mobility, which lets it work at higher frequencies.
Failed projects
(Excerpt) Read more at technology.newscientist.com ...
Guys over at Lockheed Skunk Works might argue over claim to stealth. They were flying SR-71 in 64. I just skimmed over the Skunk Works book but if I remember right the Air Force didn't invite them to do a prototype. So Skunk Works called up the Air Force and said something like "hey we've been flying the technology you want for years under CIA"
Except that the likely reason for transporting troops this way would be covert insertion, and supercavitation is REALLY, REALLY LOUD.
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The mechanical elephant: Frustrated by a lack of decent tarmac in the jungle, DARPA sought to create a "mechanical elephant" during the Vietnam war. Its vision of high-tech Hannibal's piloting them through the forest never came true. It is alleged that when the director heard of the plan he scrapped the "damn fool" project immediately in the hope no one would hear about it.
There've been some promising results lately (though you're sure not gonna sneak up on anyone)
That was neat, thanks.
BUMP!
Thanks martin. I’ve got a great big thick book called “Raising Heaven and Earth” which is about one of the aerospace companies and their DoD work. I’ve barely ever cracked it, makes my arms hurt to read it. :’)
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