Word: sonar
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Delicate Marriage. The easy accuracy of the Raytheon navigator that the A Ian was demonstrating for the Navy last week masked a delicate marriage of intricate techniques: the sonar sound-detection systems that have been used by submarines and sub detectors since World War II, and the more advanced electronic navigation devices that have recently come into use aboard high-speed aircraft. Mounted beneath the Alan's hull are four small pairs of sound projectors and receivers. A gyrocompass keeps them constantly aimed toward the cardinal points of the compass as powerful beams of sound are caromed...
...detected frequency shift is the celebrated Doppler effect, and a computer translates the change into speed-and-direction instructions for the automatic marking pen. A single dial adjusts the navigator to the scale of any standard marine chart. And last week's sea trial found the new Doppler sonar accurate within a startling...
...Overboard. Now that his newest brainchild has proved such a prodigy, Sonar Engineer Edwin Turner, 64, plans to deliver two prototypes to the Navy for further trials and then retire. He stresses that Doppler sonar is a supplement, not a replacement for radar and other modern navigational aids. It can function properly only in well-charted waters or far at sea, where the course picked out by its pen is not likely to run into unexpected obstacles. The Navy already has a built-in need for such a device on many of its ships, and along the world...
...human submariner, the built-in sonar system of the porpoise is an object of particular envy. How does a series of clicks and squeaks enable the graceful swimmer to "see" so well through the murkiest water? Scientists from the Lockheed-California Co. are still searching for the answer. But their research is already pointing toward an extra, nonaquatic dividend-a practical aid for blind people walking on land...
Lockheed's echo-location system may some day have an important impact on antisubmarine warfare, for it shows that the human ear, when working with the proper mixed frequencies, can determine the composition of an unseen object. This could correct a major failing in present sonar systems in which whales are sometimes mistaken for ene my submarines. It may also put the Seeing-Eye dog out of business. Lockheed scientists hope to reduce the sound generator to the size of a flashlight; then the blind may learn to "see" with their skilled ears...