THE SPACE RACE BY-PRODUCTS HAVE FLOWED THROUGH WHOLE U.S. SYSTEM

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31584, 23 January 1968, Page 10

THE SPACE RACE BY-PRODUCTS HAVE FLOWED THROUGH WHOLE U.S. SYSTEM

(By

E. V. FRANCIS

S tn the "Daily Telegraph." London)

riteprinted by arrangement)

Driving across the Arizona desert to Phoenix, the traveller is h ree -c d not Wlt r th e torpor of a cow-town on a single-line Wlth a revealin « & llm pse of the vast ramifications of the United States aerospace programmes.

Such has been the transformation of this cactus-studded town into ?. c ? n V® °P er s tlons for most of the big names in American electronics that the whole of the valley floor, bounded by red rock mountains, is now occupied by a multitude of engineers and scientists.

It was instructive to have been in Phoenix on the day when the American Apollo/ Saturn IV spacecraft successfully ended its moon test flight in the Pacific. The news, when it came over the public address system at Motorala’s electronics plant, as I can testify, sent everyone’s morale leaping to a new height. And tne same could have been said of a host of other electronic plants throughout the country, also contractors to the Government’s defence and aerospace projects. “Pulsating Centre” If Phoenix is singled out in this connection, it is merely because it typifies the development of a new pattern of science-based industry by which the United States has been able, above all, to secure a world lead in electronics and, with them, computers. What was described to me as the “pulsating centre of money” for this development lies in Washington, and this as a- result of the United States Government’s vast expenditure on research, development and procurement for the military missile and civilian space programmes. Much of this money has necessarily gone to the universities, to whom the Department of Defence, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other Federal agencies entrust responsibilities both for basic research and the operation of major research facilities. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), for example, manages a $lOO mil-lion-a-year Jet Propulsion Laboratory under contract to N.A.S.A. Private industry benefits to an even greater extent from Federal funds for applied research and development, and the ensuing close inter-com-munication between industry and the universities is reflected in the emergence of two major industrial complexes pivoting on the leading New England universities,

notably Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the east, and Berkeley, Caltech and Stanford Research Institute in the west. And most other American universities play a supporting role to industry elsewhere. Lead In Electronics The United States’ leadership in electronics is all of a piece with her post-war evolution as a super-Power and the consequent development of inter - continental ballistic missiles and satellites, in particular, in confrontation with Russia over the defence of Europe. It was here that the use of electronics and computers as a technical discipline happened to be more advanced than in any other industrial sector.

Aerospace, computers and electronics generally are three industries which cat) for many purposes be regarded virtually as one; and it is perhaps a fortunate coincidence for the United States that the developments in military technology have helped make this a leading sector of industry which has, in turn, stimulated the rest of the economy.

How far the requirements s of military/space technology •• bear directly on civilian needs t- is another matter. Certainly J no attempt was made to I- exploit satellites for weather i- forecasting, earth mapping, i- television relays or television :- signals until after vast f expense had been incurred e in establishing the military i- satellite. Few products or processes i- c»n be exploited commercially 9 without considerable expense 9 of adaptation, and there is no proof that military pro--9 grammes promote greater 9 growth than more specific J civilian ones. J New Standards ► What one cannot measure f are the intangible benefits, i- and here there is ample j reason to believe that the :, challenge presented to the - big American Industrial corporations as prime contractors for specific space programmes has led to new standards of achievement in management techniques, notably in the management of managers, besides that of resources. The initial impetus came from Mr McNamara, who, as Secretary of Defence, developed the system of costeffective exercises in the letting of defence contracts in the late 19505. Without this, American industry would not have developed the new art of using time, materials and human resources in such a way as to acquire effective control of procurement, costs and techniques for so complex an undertaking as an intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear submarine. The principles of costeffectiveness established by the Department of Defence have since been adopted, adapted and refined by N.A.S.A. for its space projects. Among its leading prime contractors is the Boeing Company, and it was sufficient only for me to dis- < cuss with officials of its ' Aerospace Division at Kent, some miles out of Seattle, i how the Lunar Orbital Pro-i gramme was masterminded < to realise that such a vast 1 and infinitely complex pro- i ject had taken the company < into new dimensions of management. Not least of the problems —that of the “interfaces”— is the meshing together of thousands of sub-contractors, defining their responsibilities and ensuring compatibility Of their materials and methods. Consumers Helped The effect has been not only to propagate new management standards; but the stringent reliability requirements demanded by N.A.S.A. have also greatly , helped to improve the pro- 1 cesses and techniques of ( consumer - oriented manu- < facturing. The striking feature about ( N.A.S.A.’s space projects is ( the way in which the manage- , ment capability of the big corporations, in their role of . prime contractors, has been ! enlarged to the extent that it J has become possible to 1 mobilise resources right ! across the board of American i manufacturing industry, ensuring that the activities of a r host of sub-contracting com- s panics are integrated and f t Kaikoura Values t Valuers would soon begin t field work for the revaluation t of the Kaikoura County, the t manager of the Christchurch s branch of the Valuation De- c partment (Mr V. R. Aitken) c said yesterday. The county < was last revalued in Febru- j ary, 1964, and the new values will be issued early next year . for rating on April 1, 1969. . The county contains 1600 f separate properties. These will be inspected by the rural ' district valuer (Mr I. H. 0 Ashby, of Blenheim) and his assistant (Mr E. K. Dowling). They will stay in the district [ until March. Valuations in *■ the Kaikoura township will « be made by the senior urban i valuer in Blenheim (Mr A. d Dodd), who will start work J Inext month. t

locked into highly detailed and complex time schedules of cost and technical performance with the aid of highly advanced computer techniques.

> It is this need for integrated operation which makes 1 ‘ doubtful, for example, whether the European Launcher Development Organisa- ’ tion could ever push its pro--1 gramme to a successful ’ conclusion. : Small Companies Grow • _ Although the big corporai tions are in the strongest posif tlon to undertake major res search and development pro- • jects and tender for electronic s and computer systems under - N.A.S.A. space contracts, a - notable feature of the industry has been the rapid growth 1 Private companies, s This is a really striking r phenomenon of the American 1 private enterprise system, and . not a few of the largest elec- > tronic companies, e.g. Hewlett > and Packard, were started in . this way during the last de--5 cade or more. r The main recruiting ground I Is found among the thousands of electronic engineers and 5 scientists employed on re- , search and development bv . the bigger firms. It is not , difficult for the budding entre- , preneur among the research , staff with an idea for exploit- ‘ ing his specialised technology in a particular area to have t a reasonable chance of getting I the capital for it. This is be- , cause the whole atmosphere of electronics is so sensitised to success stories that such r ideas readily attract capital , from private sources. ' The American university staffs are also major recruit- ; ing grounds for entrepreneurs , and business executives in • this field. Most university professors act in the capacity of business consultants, and many may be said to have left . the grove of “Academe” to en- , rich themselves with patent i developments. . The fact remains that . American universities are in- . dustry-orientated just: as American industry is re-search-orientated. Indeed, for most public American corporations a reputation for research and development is sought as a status symbol with the investing public. Professionals Mobile A dynamic element in the growth of American science- • based industry and particularly the high technology areas of electronic systems is the mobility of its profession- : als. Not only are they con- ' stantly on the move between university teaching, Government agencies and business, but in the process they acquire the invaluable experience of crossing the frontier,s of different industries and of each other's disciplines. United States achievements in space technology have opened up vast new fields of application for computers and electronics in industry and medicine, transport and communications. It is open to British management to acquire the fruits of this technology and not allow itself to be deterred by what one American executive described as the N.I.H. (not invented here) complex. The main need is to concentrate on the applications of technology in areas which matter most for the growth of the economy.