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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."

6 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 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 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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      Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
  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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