1957, Holloman AFB, NM, Univac 1103A, 5000 - 7000 vacuum tubes, 4096 words core memory (and IIRC, some electrostatic memory). One 4k magnetic drum mass memory plus six Uniservo tape drives. OAT typically 120F. Air conditioning kept computer room at 60F but MTTF was only 6 - 8 hours. Acquired what turned out to be one of life's most useless skills, testing and replacing 12AX7 vacuum tubes.

Purpose of 1103A, data reduction from missile tests. Some target drones became gliders. Some guided missiles became unguided. Many just vanished. Glad we were in a bunker. Lt.Col. Howard Ebersole and some other guys were trying to start a glider club which eventually became White Sands Soaring Association. The most complicated glider instrument: pellet variometer. Radios? You're kidding, right? Navigation? IFR (I Follow Roads) backed up with IFRR. (I Follow Rail Roads)



On Sunday, March 17, 2013 9:20:37 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
We had some machines that had to be booted from punched tape. We did it so

often that we used mylar tape! We also had a hand-held, battery powered,

winder up thingie to wind it back up and then wrap a rubber band around it.

Ah... The days of core memory...



I wonder how that punched mylar tape would work as a combined control

seal/turbulator...





"Martin Gregorie" wrote in message

...

On Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:17:26 -0700, chip.bearden wrote:



Cool. One card per turnpoint. Manually sorted/indexed for your easy

access. "Aww crap, can't find turnpoint #2 - it must've slipped behind

my back".



Using punched paper tape would solve that problem, Erik. Same

technology, different medium.



There's a problem: there's no stairwell in most gliders. I used to work

with paper tape and the stair-well is essential. If you get a large roll

tangled, e.g. drop it and have the centre fall out, the quick fix is to

hold one end, dump the rest down the stair well and wind it up again.

OTOH I can imagine loose tape in a cockpit trussing the pilot like a

turkey ready for Thanksgiving.





--

martin@ | Martin Gregorie

gregorie. | Essex, UK

org |