Ivan A. Getting

American scientist

• Born: January 18, 1912
• Birthplace: New York, New York
• Died: October 11, 2003
• Place of death: Coronado, California

Getting is remembered for his work on the Global Positioning System (GPS), a navigational system that uses satellites to pinpoint the location of a radio receiver. The first operational GPS satellite was launched in 1978, and by 1993 GPS had become fully operational.

Primary fields: Aeronautics and aerospace technology; electronics and electrical engineering; military technology and weaponry; navigation

Primary invention: Global Positioning System

Early Life

Ivan Alexander Getting was born on January 18, 1912, in were chosen, the son of Slovak immigrants. His family moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he spent his childhood and first developed an interest in science. Seeking to broaden his scientific knowledge, Getting sought financial assistance to attend college. Upon receiving an Edison scholarship, Getting enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the preeminent scientific institutions in the United States. He received a bachelor of science degree in physics in 1933 and looked for other avenues to extend his education. Upon receipt of a Rhodes Scholarship, he pursued additional training at Oxford University in England. In 1935, he earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics. From 1935 to 1940, Getting worked as a junior fellow at Harvard University researching cosmic rays and nuclear instruments. While there, he designed the high-speed flip-flop circuit that would become a central feature of the first digital computers.

Life’s Work

In 1940, Getting returned to MIT as the director of the Division of Fire Control and Army Radar at the Radiation Laboratory. There he participated in the production of a wide variety of weapons systems that helped secure victory for the Allied Powers in World War II. Getting and his fellow researchers provided the U.S. Army with most of its land-based radars, many of which were technologically advanced. Most notable was the creation of SCR-584, an automatic microwave-tracking gunfire-control radar that proved most effective in intercepting Nazi V-1 bombs, or “buzz bombs,” so named for the sound heard right before the projectiles crashed down, that had once wrought terror and devastation on the city of London. It is estimated that Getting’s system helped destroy 95 percent of the Nazi projectiles, an achievement that saved thousands of lives and earned Getting the eternal gratitude of the English nation. Getting’s efforts also led to the development of the U.S. Navy’s GFCS MK-56 antiaircraft fire-control system. During the course of World War II, he also served as a special consultant to Secretary of War Henry Stimson.

Getting’s research placed him on the front lines of the Cold War, which developed between the capitalist United States and the communist Soviet Union, owing to intense ideological and geopolitical differences between the two superpowers. The devastating impact of the Nazi invasion on the Russian countryside during World War II prompted Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to seek a buffer between Russia and Germany to protect his country from future attacks. Rather than permit the nations of Eastern Europe liberated by Russian forces to hold free and fair elections, Stalin placed in power communist dictators answerable to him. U.S. officials perceived Stalin’s actions as unnecessarily provocative and adopted a hard-line yet patient approach to Russia’s expansive tendencies. This policy, called “containment,” was intended to check Soviet advances wherever and whenever they might occur. Sometimes containment might take the form of direct military intervention, while on other occasions it might take a more subtle form such as giving financial aid to embattled nations or offering more covert support. New and improved weapons systems were needed to keep perceived American foes in check, and Ivan Getting was one man with the desire and the competence to help.

After World War II, Getting remained at MIT as a professor of electrical engineering and head of the Radar Panel of the Research and Development Board of the Department of Defense. During this period, he helped design and build a 350-million-electronvolt synchrotron. In 1948, he received the U.S. Medal of Merit, but he soon found the life of an academic too limiting. In 1950, he headed to Washington, D.C., to work at the Pentagon for the Air Force before joining the Raytheon Corporation, a civilian defense contractor. As vice president of research and engineering at Raytheon, Getting developed several radar missile systems, including Sparrow III, a semiactive radar-homing air-to-air missile, and HAWK, a medium-range surface-to-air missile. He would later play a pivotal role in the creation of the Polaris, a submarine-launched nuclear surface-to-air missile system. Getting’s innovations made Raytheon a top missile provider for both the U.S. government and several of its allies.

In 1960, Getting, along with fellow scientist Bradford Parkinson, created the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California, to further Getting’s work in military technology. Under Getting’s guidance, the corporation made numerous advances in the production of ballistic missile systems and in the field of space engineering. At Aerospace, he commenced work on his most famous invention—the Global Positioning System (GPS)—which he designed with the assistance of Parkinson. Getting originally conceptualized the system for military purposes only, although he later championed civilian use of GPS. By the mid-1990’s, the system was fully functional, with twenty-four orbiting satellites, making the military “smarter” and civilians safer.

Getting’s ability to create advanced ballistic missile systems led to work with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he played a role in the creation of both the Mercury and Gemini programs during the Cold War. Getting’s innovations helped the United States keep pace with the Soviet Union in the development of military technology. He is even credited with reinstating the B-1 bomber program, which had been cut by Congress for its extravagant cost. As Getting saw it, prevailing over communism necessitated that the U.S. arsenal include a long-range bomber capable of reaching Soviet territory. When Getting talked, people listened.

Although he retired from Aerospace in 1977, Getting remained an active advocate of GPS and of continued improvements in U.S. military technology. He died in 2003, but his legacy lives on. His work garnered him posthumous induction into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 2004. Getting was the recipient of the Air Force Exceptional Service Award (1960), the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Pioneer Award (1975), and the Kitty Hawk Award (1975).

Impact

Getting fought for years to convince the U.S. government to explore the possibilities of the very expensive Global Positioning System despite repeated efforts by Pentagon officials to stop the program, as they believed that the costs outweighed the potential benefits. Getting’s persistence, coupled with mounting evidence of the system’s potential utility, eventually bore fruit as the military invested billions in the launching of the satellites necessary to make the system operational. In 1978, the first of the satellites that comprise today’s GPS were launched. Thanks to Getting’s crusade, today’s U.S. military can count on incredible navigational accuracy to keep servicemen and women out of harm’s way. Millions of people from all walks of life and various government agencies, including NASA, now utilize GPS technology in cell phones, aircraft, automobiles, and countless other devices and vehicles, ensuring a safe and speedy route to their destinations.

Getting’s weapons systems helped the United States and its allies triumph in World War II and helped bring an end to the Cold War. The Soviet Union struggled to keep pace with American advances but soon spent itself into dissolution. Getting played a prominent role in making the United States the world’s preeminent military power and foremost producer of military technology.

Bibliography

Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin Press, 2005. One of the foremost Cold War historians explores the historical forces that prompted Getting’s research.

Getting, Ivan. All in a Lifetime: Science in the Defense of Democracy. New York: Vantage Press, 1989. In his autobiography, Getting places his scientific work in the ideological context of the Cold War.

Hofmann-Wellenhof, B., Herbert Lichtenegger, and James Collins. Global Positioning System: Theory and Practice. 5th ed. New York: Springer, 2008. An invaluable reference on the creation and development of GPS. Explains in detail how the system works as well as advances in the technology.

Leslie, Stuart W. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Offers important insight into the milieu in which a young Ivan Getting first began his work and reveals how U.S. scientific research often served the purpose of the Defense Department.