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How To Make 96,000lbs of WWII Machinery Into High-Tech Research Platform

Posted by samzenpus on from the what's-old-is-new dept.

coondoggie writes "The US Naval Research Laboratory is taking a 96,000-pound piece of World War II-era machinery and turning it into a test-bed for leading edge communications and radar applications. The equipment was originally known as a three-axis tilting platform designed to simulate the movements of a large ship at sea. It was built by Westinghouse in 1943 as a gun platform requiring only primitive motion in roll, pitch and yaw, according to the Navy Lab. Specifically it was used as a mechanically operated deck with a heavy machine gun director and a machine gun mount installed. Gun crews and director operators could be trained on the platform under conditions that approximated the movements of a vessel at sea."

9 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. I'll bet... by Cornwallis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In 1943 it probably cost a few hundred thousand $ to build - if that.

    Today's "updates" will cost $4.3 billion, be obsolete 6 months before completed, take 6 years, be the subject of multiple disciplinary hearings, congressional investigations and DOJ corruption probes, won't work, then ultimately will be outsourced to China for completion prior to being abandoned for a new technology.

    1. Re:I'll bet... by symes · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well hello there you little ray of sunshine

    2. Re:I'll bet... by TWX · · Score: 3, Funny

      We were still using predominately virgin steel in the '40s, so the costs for this material by weight was probably not significantly different than for other forms of steel from the manufacturer. As the raw steel smelter was selling right to the government or to the durable-goods manufacturer, whatever their price was, should be fairly close.

      Or in other words, whoever smelt it, dealt it...

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    3. Re:I'll bet... by supercrisp · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Clearly the parent hasn't read much history. Military over-expenditures and boondoggles go way, way back. Hell, I was just reading about similar problems in the 14th century.

  2. Jodrell Bank by Molt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This type of reuse of ex-military kit quite often happens, although not normally so long after it was originally used. I'm not sure if it's still running on the same engines but I know that the Lovell Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank (UK), at one time the largest movable dish telescope, originally had a lot of parts cannibalised from engines taken from two battleships. Lovell, the maker of the telescope, had also previously been using quite a lot of reclaimed military kit for his astronomical observations before the actual radio telescope was built.

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    1. Re:Jodrell Bank by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 3, Interesting

      This type of reuse of ex-military kit quite often happens, although not normally so long after it was originally used. I'm not sure if it's still running on the same engines but I know that the Lovell Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank (UK), at one time the largest movable dish telescope, originally had a lot of parts cannibalised from engines taken from two battleships. Lovell, the maker of the telescope, had also previously been using quite a lot of reclaimed military kit for his astronomical observations before the actual radio telescope was built.

      After WWII German Würzburg 'Riese' GCI radar antennas were repurposed for radio astronomy. Some of them remained in use at least into the 1980s. I wonder if any are still in use?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Würzburg_radar
      http://www.astron.nl/~leeuwen/video/dloo/JAHH9p3.pdf

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    2. Re:Jodrell Bank by AlecC · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not engine parts - the main bearings that carry the dish are gun turret bearings from battleships. Since they are so central to the structure, I doubt they have been replaced.

      I like their pigeon prevention mechanisms as well - two nests of peregrine falcons, one in each support.

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  3. Re:WW2 machiny and WW2 units of measurement by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Funny

    You need to use measurements people have an intuitive grasp of. Nobody in the US knows how much a kilo "feels like" but 96,000 lb is a readily comprehensible number.

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  4. Re:The payload is not much by onepoint · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While what your saying is correct, I think it's more for the ability to handle weight. ...
    while the platform is about 42MT ( 96,000 lbs in case someone needs that )
    the original machine gun turret has a low weight of about 80MT ( the Yamato's were in excess of 2200MT )

    so I'm thinking it's for that ability.

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