MIT Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science

MIT's Building 20: The Magical Incubator Story, Anecdote, or Reminiscence

Ground Control Approach (GCA) Group

C.W. Hargens

Glad to see Ted Saad's ('41) name on the program. We were class and course mates and at the Rad Lab. I was a visiting Staff Member for two separate 1-year tasks. First was on GCA (Ground Control Approach) radar landing system. Luis W. Alvarez was our leader who went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968. He died 20 years later at the age of 77, but we remember his great enthusiastic personality. A GCA Reunion in October, 1971 brought back members of the team from all over the world, celebrities such as Arthur C. Clarke (author of "Glide Path", novel about GCA). Even Vannevar Bush showed up. GCA for a while had the highest priority in the Rad Lab, because more planes were lost trying to land in Britain than were shot down by the Nazis. Later I led a group to develop and manufacture BUPX (X-band Ultra Portable Beacon). Our group was from Gilfillan in Los Angeles, later part of ITT. The GCA experience led to my being hired by RCA to work on TELERAN, a complex air navigation and landing system through the rest of the wonderful but hectic 1940's.