General Dynamics News, Volume 18, Number 3, February 3, 1965 Page: 2 of 6
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Page 2
GENERAL DYNAMICS NEWS
Wednesday, February 3, 1965
"til?*
GLOTRAC LINK—At upper left is recently-completed GLOTRAC station at Pre-
toria, South Africa, latest link in global space vehicle tracking network built by
General Dynamics for Air Force. Located mid-way between Pretoria and Johannes-
burg, central site consists of instrumented GLOTRAC trailer for data acquisition,
transmitting and receiving antennas, direction finder precision antenna, calibration
tower, and power house. Central station is connected by coaxial cable to two
remote “slave sites,” or sub-stations (top photo at far right), each two miles away
forming L-shaped base line system for accurate tracking. Top center shows line-up
of GD crew (from left) E. Frank Smith, Raymond C. Hanson, Louis DeBeer, Walt
Buniger, “Red" Jenkins, Eugene Swindell, Sam Zannin, Jim Nellis, Marshall Huff.
Not in picture was Jack Kelly. Lower photos, from left, Buniger, on-site manager,
alongside huge spool of cable topped (in next shot) by clowning Bantu natives.
Local laborers worked at 25 cents an hour for sub-contractor on job. At far right,
natives tug at ropes to set up section of 328-ft. tall calibration tower which T. B.
Field, engineer in charge of GLOTRAC site preparation, is climbing (center below).
GD men are all back home except DeBeer, now training RCA technicians.
GD/E Crew Returns From Africa
After Setting up GLOTRAC Unit
work on the Eastern Test Range,
formerly known as the Atlantic
Missile Range.
Addition of the Pretoria station
is expected to enable the entire
netwoi'k to yield data which rep-
resents a major improvement in
tracking accuracy. The other six
GLOTRAC links are located at
Atlantic Field, N. C., Cape Ken-
nedy, Florida, and on the British
West Indies’ islands of San Sal-
vador, Grand Turk, Antigua and
Bermuda.
The Pretoria station is similar
to all GLOTRAC continuous wave
tracking stations. Its sensitive
electronic tracking and data proc-
essing hardware are housed in a
mobile, 40-foot air conditioned
van for ease of transportation by
air, sea or road to a tracking
site. Economical and extremely
precise in its metric tracking
capability, GLOTRAC is designed
to track vehicles more than 23,000
miles into space, determine ve-
locity to better than six inches
per second, and pinpoint location
to within 100 feet.
The GLOTRAC network’s pri-
mary assignment is to provide
accurate tracking information nec-
essary for post-flight mission an-
alysis. It is also used extensively
to evaluate the performance of
on-board missile guidance sys-
tems.
Headquarters
Mitchell Gets Planning Post
DONALD MITCHELL, formerly assistant general manager of
Raytheon Co.’s electronic services division, has joined the Corporate
Engineering and Program Development staff at New York Head-
quarters. He will be responsible for program analysis and new busi-
ness planning.
A 1950 graduate of the University of Maine, mechanical engineer-
ing, with MBA (1955) from Harvard School of Business, Mitchell
has served as a first lieutenant in the Air Force, Air Defense
Command.
* * *
NORMAN B. BESSAC, former submarine skipper, will assist
H. E. LOESER on Marine Systems of the Corporate Engineering and
Program Development staff. Bessac, a U. S. Navy commander, served
in the submarine service for more than 20 years. His last command
was a Polaris fleet ballistic missile sub. He is a 1944 graduate of
the U. S. Naval Academy and holds a master’s degree in business
administration from Stanford.
People Mobility
(Following are recent personnel transfers among General
Dynamics divisions. In parentheses are dates when individuals
joined the company.)
MARTIN W. MONTGOMERY (1940) from Astro to Convair
engineering; FRANK R. BLAKE (1942) from Astro to Convair
manufacturing control; HARRY R. PHOTINOS (1963) from Astro
to GD/Electronics-San Diego; ROY E. CARIOLA (1951) from Astro
to Convair engineering; ROY P. POSTON (1955) from Fort Worth
to Convair engineering.
WESLEY S. VICK (1959) from Astro to GD/Electronics-San
Diego; JOHN NORSE (1952) from Astro to Convair engineering;
JOHN S. RUTKAUSKAS (1957) from Astro to Convair engineer-
ing; DARYL D. THORNBURG (1963) from Astro to GD/Electronics-
San Diego; HIRAM R. ROUSH (1951) from Astro to Convair engi-
neering; WALKER MATLACK (1962) from Astro to Convair pur-
chasing; JACK L. FOGLEMAN (1953) from Astro to Convair en-
gineering.
CORPORATE GATHERING — General Dynamics division heads of industrial relations meeting with
Corporate officials at Jan. 21-22 GD Industrial Relations Conference in New York are (from left),
seated: E. C. McManus, GD director of employee services; T. R. Worthy, Pomona; Elmer R. Johnson,
Electric Boat; Algie A. Hendrix, GD vice president - industrial relations; James L. Budros, GD director of compensation and
personnel; Roger Brown, GD/Electronics; M. V. Wisdom, Astronautics. Standing are: Bill D. Teague, GD administrator of
wage and salary; G. S. Crystal, GD coordinator of personnel research; H. Tracy Brooks, manager of personnel placement;
Karl Goetter, Liquid Carbonic; Fred E. Chambers, Fort Worth; D. C. Wilkens Jr., Convair; W. D. McCarthy, Electro Dy-
namic; Murray Bass, Stromberg-Carlson; William Shuttleworth, Canadair; R. W. Trevithick, General Atomic; Carl Oles, GD
director of labor relations.
The seventh link in the Air
Force chain of global tracking
stations has been completed at
Pretoria, South Africa, and suc-
cessfully employed to track space
vehicles on the U. S. Air Force’s
Eastern Test Range. The GLO-
TRAC station, a long baseline in-
terferometer tracking facility, can
detect a change of less than one
inch in the motion of a vehicle
100 miles overhead.
Announcement of the new in-
stallation and its first success-
ful tracks was made by General
Dynamics/Electronics division,
designer and manufacturer of
GLOTRAC stations for the Air
Force Missile Test Center, Pat-
rick AFB, Florida.
ON PATROL—Formation of Convair-built F-102s from 496th
FIS, Hahn Air Base, Germany, flying over Rhine River Valley. Con-
vair rep attached to 496th is J. P. Mathis. — Photo by S/Sgt. Ro-
bert King.
The new Pretoria tracking sta-
tion acquired recently orbited Ti-
tan IIIA and Centaur AC4 ve-
hicles after they had passed over
the radio horizon of the other six
uprange GLOTRAC stations. To-
gether, the seven stations make
up the present GLOTRAC net-
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General Dynamics Corporation. Convair Division. General Dynamics News, Volume 18, Number 3, February 3, 1965, periodical, February 3, 1965; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth777397/m1/2/: accessed April 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth.