MAJOR MILESTONES IN TELECOMMUNICATION

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Twelve years before the first artificial earth satellite Sputnik-1 was launched by the USSR, Arthur C. Clarke

proposed in an article published in Wireless World in 1945, the use of geostationary satellites for worldwide radio coverage.

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Guglielmo Marconi managed to transmit by radio a message across the English Channel in

1897. In 1899 he sent signals across the Atlantic Ocean from Cornwall, England to Signal

Hill, Newfoundland. By 1907 a transatlantic wireless service had been established and in

1909 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics.

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Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, educated at the University of Berlin, taught physics at the

technical school in Karlsruhe and at the University in Bonn in 1889. Hertz proved

that electricity can be transmitted in electromagnetic waves. His experiments

with electromagnetic waves led to the development of the wireless telegraph and

the radio.

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From 1947, academician Sergei Pavlovich Korolev directed the design of rockets

in the USSR which led to the launch of Sputnik-1, the first artificial earth satellite,

on 4 October 1957. Korolev also directed the development of a number of satellites

including the Molniya-1 series of telecommunications satellites.

Raytheon

• Laurence K. Marshall and Vannevar Bush, along with scientist Charles G. Smith, founded Raytheon

Company in Cambridge, Mass., as the American Appliance Company in 1922.

• From its early days as a maker of radio tubes, its adaptation of World War II radar technology to invent

microwave cooking, and its development of the first guided missile, Raytheon has successfully built upon

its pioneering tradition to become a global technology leader.

• In 1925, the year American Appliance Company began to take off, an Indiana company made it known that it

held prior claim to the American Appliance Company name.

• Because of the success of the Raytheon radio tube, company officials at that time elected to extend the use

of the name to describe the entire organization, and the company's name was officially changed to Raytheon

Manufacturing Company. "Ray" comes from "rai," an Old French word that means "a beam of light," while

"theon" comes from the Greek and means "from the gods."

• 'Technology Today' is a quarterly magazine published by Raytheon

Technology Leadership

• Magnetron Tubes: Raytheon engineer Percy L. Spencer

• Shipboard Radar: Raytheon's Fritz Gross developed the microwave SG radar.

• Microwave Cooking: Raytheon's discovery of microwave cooking in 1945 was initially an accident, but its

development, like so many others, can be credited to Percy Spencer.

• In 1947, Raytheon demonstrated the world's first microwave oven and called it a "Radarange," the winning

name in an employee contest.

• Guided Missiles: In 1948, Raytheon became the first company to develop a missile guidance system that could hit a flying target. Its missiles included Lark, Sparrow air- to-air missile and the Hawk ground-to air
missile.

• NASA Communications Systems: Apollo XI had been sent aloft by a Saturn booster rocket. Raytheon had

designed and manufactured the computer that guided the space vehicle in their historic journey.

• Patriot Missile System: It was the 1991 Persian Gulf War that put Raytheon's Patriot to the real test of

military conflict when upgraded Patriot Advanced Capability Phase 2 (PAC-2) missiles successfully

intercepted and destroyed Iraqi Scud missiles fired at Israel and Saudi Arabia.

• Transistors: The transistor, a device composed of semiconductor material that amplifies a signal or opens or

closes a circuit, was originally conceived at Bell Labs in 1947 by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William

Shockley.

• In 1948, Raytheon released the first commercially produced transistor, the CK703 point contact transistor.

• In 1954, the Texas Instruments/Regency Electronics partnership released the first commercially

produced transistor radio, the Regency TR-1.

 

Milestones

• Over the years Raytheon has acquired businesses with impressive legacies of their own including:

Beechcraft; E-Systems; Texas Instruments' Defense Systems and Electronics business; and Hughes

Aircraft's Defense Electronics business.

• 1922: Raytheon is founded as the American Appliance Company, a maker of machinery, motors and

components.

• 1930: Texas Instruments (TI) is founded as Geophysical Service, Inc. a provider of contract exploration

services to the petroleum industry.

• 1932: Hughes Aircraft is created as a division of the Hughes Tool Company, with a focus on military aircraft

research and design

• 1932: Beech Aircraft is established that same year.

• 1945: Texas Engineering and Manufacturing Company (TEMCO), precursor to E-Systems, is founded.

• 1940s: Missiles introduced include Raytheon's Lark Missile, Sparrow Missile, and Hawk; TI's Shrike Missile

and Hughes' Falcon Missile.

• 1947: Beech introduced the Model 35 Beech Bonanza, a high-performance, single-engine, business airplane that's still being made to this day.

• 1963: Hughes launched the first geosynchronous communications satellite, enabling Americans to watch
live coverage of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a landmark in
global broadcasting.

• Moon Mission in 1960s–Apollo 11: Raytheon build the computer that guided the space vehicles in their

journey and its on-board microwave tube transmitted radio and TV signals to earth, thus enabling millions to

witness history

• In 2005, Raytheon launched 'MathMovesU', an educational initiative intended to make math and science

more interesting and accessible for young people, funded by $1 million in annual grants. Raytheon also

sponsors the mathematics competition MathCounts.

• In 2006, Raytheon, CEO Swanson admitted to plagiarism (1944 book The Unwritten Laws of Engineering,

by W.J. (William Julian) King, a one-time General Electric engineer who retired as a UCLA engineering

professor in 1969) in claiming authorship for his booklet, "Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management,"

after a report by The New York Times.