October 1948 Popular Science
[Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early
electronics. See articles from
Popular
Science, published 1872-2021. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Just about anyone
familiar with the
Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook, a must-have
resource back in the 1980s* and up through even today, knows it was published by
the Naval Air Warfare Center's Weapons Division Avionics Department, Electronic
Warfare Division at Point Mugu, California. I don't know when the first
edition was put out, but the most recent is 2013. My introduction to it was
after arriving at General Electric's Aerospace Electronic Systems Division, in
Utica, New York, right after graduating from the University of Vermont in 1989.
It was, and still is, a valuable resource for RF and microwave systems design.
This 1948 issue of Popular Science magazine contained an article
entitled, "Keep Away from Point Mugu!," to inform the public of the dangerous
airborne weapons systems being developed and tested there. Remotely controlled
and self-piloted missiles and drones, radar systems, secure communications
systems, and other highly advanced, top secret projects were and still are to
this day in process. * 1997 is the earliest I can find, but it sure seems
like it has been around longer.
Keep Away from Point Mugu !

The Navy's test station for guided missiles is being made into
the world's biggest proving ground for weapons of push-button war at sea.
By Andrew R. Boone
The young Naval officer jabs his red pencil at an air map of the California coast.
That red dot is now a pin-point target. Its exact position, 100 miles or farther
out in the Pacific Ocean, is calculated.
Soon, one of the Navy's secret guided missiles roars from a launcher and arcs
high into the sky. If its electronic brain responds swiftly and surely to radioed
commands, the missile will plunk into the sea on or very near its mark, far over
the horizon.
"At least," the launching control officer tells you, grinning, "we'll scare a
helluva lot of sea gulls."
Hitting tiny targets 150 miles away, far beyond the horizon, is serious business
with the Navy's Air Missile Test Center experts at Point Mugu, Calif. Since the
station began operation Oct. 1, 1946, hundreds of missiles have smoked seaward.
Upwards of $15,000 drop into the drink as each ends its flight. In time, improvements
from these launchings will bring guided missiles that can be fired from surface
ships with the accuracy of a 16-inch rifle-but with far greater range and destructive
power.

Guided missile is about to be launched from
an improved version of the "split-tube" type catapult used by the Nazis. Lighter,
it uses powder instead of hydrogen peroxide as a propellant.

For tracking the missile in flight, this theodolite,
pointed seaward, is another improvement over a German original. At Point Mugu it
has been modified to permit faster sweeping.

Components of new missiles must stand up under
tough tests in this proposed centrifuge. Whirled by a 75-hp. electric motor at 198
r.p.m., it will submit parts to a load of 100 G. The swirling container, balanced
by a weight, can hold a package 3 by 3 by 2 feet in size.

Dropped 10 feet in device sketched above, complete
missile will be brought to a stop in 3/100 second. Tester will be built to check
reaction at deceleration loads up to 20 G.

To determine antenna radiation patterns, missiles
will be mounted on a tower like the one shown above. The missiles may be rotated
360° horizontally, or rolled 90° from level.
The Navy isn't shooting fireworks for fun. These experimental missiles are not
rockets, but miniature planes with wings. They carry instruments that receive their
guidance from within, or from a remote station - on land, ship, or plane. They fly
toward one of several islands forming a natural V out in the Pacific. On all the
islands are observation stations, in constant touch with the mainland by radio,
radar, and other means of communication.
By tracking a missile from several points, it's fairly easy to determine its
position in space throughout a flight. At the same time, the missile telemeters
back to headquarters a running account, reporting with a series of dots and wavy
lines exactly how it functions, from the temperature inside its combustion chamber
to response of the rudder to radioed commands.
Point Mugu has been operated for some time as a temporary base. Now it's going
to work in earnest. Recently, Congress authorized the Navy to spend $30,000,000
on construction to keep it ahead of all comers in this field. Within three years
it will grow into a huge control center outfitted with the latest in radar and other
tracking devices. Scores of workers will be supervising flights from a battery of
launchers. In time, as many as 96 launchers may be installed. Elsewhere on the 7,000-acre
station, shops and test facilities will continue to perfect missiles and components
made by manufacturers to Government specifications. Only the best will join the
fleet.
Tests for Fitness
Right now, the engineers and workshoppers are laying plans with ingenious gadgets
to improve the aiming of missiles still under wraps. You will read about some of
these in months to come, but not until the Navy knows their delicate innards can
withstand the severe shock of sudden take-offs from the launchers; that they will
respond instantly and accurately to remote control; that they will hit their targets
with more than a fair degree of accuracy and reliability.
In the Point Mugu shops and along the shore, experts soon will be working with
a trio of machines that will submit new weapons to grueling punishment. If the electronic
brains and other controls housed in guided missiles can't take it, and be ready
for more, they will be either toughened or discarded.
They're dropped in one test. Mounted on a piston, complete medium missiles, such
as the buzz bomb, will be dropped 10 feet and jerked to a stop in 3/100 of a second.
But missiles must withstand even greater stress before they're pronounced fit
to be launched. A mighty little centrifuge will submit assemblies to a pull 100
times greater than the force of gravity. And then there'll be an even tougher test,
known as linear acceleration. Take a compact little package weighing 200 pounds
and place it on a simulated launcher. Say it contains the controls that will actuate
a missile's rudder and elevators. Place it within a torpedo-shaped form, and lay
it on its side in a sled at one end of a steel track about a mile long. Now hit
it with the blast of high-powered rocket motors. Almost as quick as a wink, this
little runaway, accelerating at hundreds of G, will pass the sonic barrier.
Although rushing down the track nearly three times faster than sound, the assembly
must be halted, swiftly and safely, so that the effects of acceleration may be evaluated.
For this purpose, brakes of some' type, pos-sibly water scoops, must be developed.
Thus the missile withstands battering and shocking starts and stops. How efficiently
and over what range will it transmit and receive signals? To find out, missiles
weighing a full ton will be mounted on a 50-foot, non-conductive tower, made of
wood or plastic. As the missile is turned a full 360 degrees and rolled 90 degrees
from level, the radiation pattern of its antennas will be charted by electronics
experts in a test room a mile distant. When a missile of the same configuration
takes off on a 150-mile flight, its transmitting and receiving ranges in all directions
will be known.
Five classes of missiles are being developed:
Ground-to-air, like the interceptor airplane, is fast and of short range. It
is intended to knock down incoming aircraft or missiles.
Air-to-ground takes over the bomber's functions for destruction of enemy ships,
military installations, and other primary targets.
Air-to-air serves the same function as the fighter plane.
Ship-to-ship suggests the torpedo plane. This missile would go in low and fast.
Ship-to-share, flying in a long, high trajectory, becomes a high-level bomber.
The Navy expects to continue employing ships as fighting bases for a long time
to come. Point Mugu missileers envision the necessity of launching their weapons
from rolling decks, in fair weather and foul. When a new missile arrives at the
base under wraps, eager minds begin to throw questions: Can it be launched? Once
off a catapult, will it fly? If it flies, will it respond to remote control? Finally,
how must the flame-belching weapon be discharged from a surface vessel to insure
an accurate trajectory - and a hit?
Out on the wind-swept island of San Nicholas in the Pacific, some 63 miles from
the Naval Air Missile Test Center, the Navy maintains a staff of approximately 50
people. From this island they obtain information to aid telemetering the progress
of flight and performance of the missile. In the not too distant future, it will
be used as a site to launch missiles that are considered too dangerous to launch
from shore installations at Point Mugu.
Thus guided missiles are being groomed for a big future with the fleet.
Just how big, you're told, depends upon the scientists, the weather, and the
dogged, day-by-day, try-'em-and-fly-'em project assigned to the men of Point Mugu.

An F-80 Shooting Star jet fighter takes off
in pursuit of each missile that is launched. The pilot's job is to shoot down those
that misbehave by turning back toward shore, not responding to commands, or flying
beyond the designated target area. Already more than one of Point Mugu's winged
missiles have gone into the drink under fire from the guardian fighter.
Posted January 30, 2024
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