by David S.
From 1966 until 1997, I worked
in engineering at the Marietta plant. The highlight of my career was working on
the Pilot's Associate (PA) program. I was asked to attend the organizational
meeting for the PA proposal for the Air Force’s application to DARPA’s
Strategic Computing Program. I walked into the meeting, and I was immediately in
awe of the expertise in the room. There were experts in developing expert
systems, staff from Skunk Works and people who could build intelligent user
interfaces.
Each group discussed how it would support
the project, and it was clear that we had all the elements to write a
successful proposal except one. Finally, somebody asked who would integrate all
this work together to make an intelligent system. Nobody spoke. I uttered my
first words in the meeting, “Well, since
Lockheed is the prime contractor, shouldn’t we lead that effort?”
We won the contract, and I was appointed
the technical lead. Six years of whirlwind activity, enormous frustration,
unbelievable creativity and finally the satisfaction of seeing the vision
become a concrete reality. The final demonstration of the PA was praised both
technically and by Air Force pilots.
On behalf of that tremendous team, in 1988, I accepted the AIAA Digital Electronics Award “in recognition of outstanding achievement in advancing the
state-of-the-art of artificial intelligence and decision support systems into
the complex, rapidly changing world of air combat."
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| We changed the face of combat. |
