This piece covers how Kelly Johnson managed Lockheed’s famous Skunk Works. In its early decades, Skunk Works continuously produced novel aircraft that pushed the aviation industry forward. Its three most iconic aircraft were the U-2 “spy plane,” the Sr-71 Blackbird — still considered a cutting-edge aircraft 60 years after it was built — and the partially DARPA-funded F-117 Nighthawk — the first stealth bomber.
Today’s piece was put together with the help of several conversations with Answer.AI co-founder Jeremy Howard. It is not a “traditional” FreakTakes piece; the research and advice are much more tailored to a specific group of individuals than usual.
The centerpiece of today’s post is an extensive interview with Chuck Thorpe. Thorpe, now President of Clarkson University, spent over two decades at Carnegie Mellon University. These years were largely spent as a student, project manager, and PI working on Carnegie Mellon’s autonomous vehicle vision research.
We’ve all heard that “DARPA invented the Internet.” But few have heard of BBN, the contractor that did the most work to bring the ARPAnet into existence. Today’s piece dives into the history of BBN and the firm’s unique structure. A firm like BBN winning the main portion of the ARPAnet project was a pivotal reason the ARPAnet project went so smoothly.
This piece is a part of a FreakTakes series. The goal is to put together a series of administrative histories on specific DARPA projects just as I have done for many industrial R&D labs and other research orgs on FreakTakes.
This piece is a part of a FreakTakes series. The goal is to put together a series of administrative histories on specific DARPA projects just as I have done for many industrial R&D labs and other research orgs on FreakTakes.
This piece is an accompaniment to today’s MOSIS piece. So please read the MOSIS piece before starting this one. Pattern Language Tags: Promoting a coordination/service mechanism to reduce material costs and increase research feedback cycles Introduction In the early 1980s, as DARPA’s Strategic Computing Initiative was getting underway, lack of cheap computing power was one of the primary concerns of DARPA performers.
This piece is a part of a FreakTakes series. The goal is to put together a series of administrative histories on specific DARPA projects just as I have done for many industrial R&D labs and other research orgs on FreakTakes.
I’ve taken to calling the pieces I write for FreakTakes “administrative histories.” The reason I opted for that name instead of “progress studies histories” or “metascience histories” is that it was the name that drew the fewest confused stares and/or eye rolls from the scientists and engineers whom I hope to attract. Some think this classification is a bit boring…but I have no problem with that!
Don Swanson’s career started on a path familiar to many who read this blog. A BA in Physics from CalTech in 1945. A Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from UC Berkeley in 1952. A decade working in scientific labs. Then his career took a turn when, after a decade of working in traditional scientific labs, Don took a professorship in the Graduate School of Library Science at the University of Chicago.
