David Knox Barton (September 21, 1927 – February 11, 2023) was an American

radar system Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), direction (azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track aircraf ...

s engineer who made significant contributions to

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

missile guidance Missile guidance refers to a variety of methods of guiding a missile or a guided bomb to its intended target. The missile's target accuracy is a critical factor for its effectiveness. Guidance systems improve missile accuracy by improving its P ...

monopulse radar Monopulse radar is a radar system that uses additional encoding of the radio signal to provide accurate directional information. The name refers to its ability to extract range and direction from a single signal pulse. Monopulse radar avoids prob ...

, low-altitude tracking,

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...

, and

early warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum tim ...

. At age 30, he was the first winner of the David Sarnoff Award in Engineering, for his contributions to precise tracking radars. Holder of the IEEE's Centennial Medal, Millennium Medal, and Dennis J. Picard Medal, he is widely regarded throughout the world as a leading authority on radar technology. He authored a well-regarded series of reference books on radar engineering in the late 1970s. David Barton was one of the people behind the

MIM-104 Patriot The MIM-104 Patriot is a mobile interceptor missile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the primary such system used by the United States Army and several allied states. It is manufactured by the U.S. defense contractor Raytheon and derives it ...

surface-to-air missile system. In 1997, Barton was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

for contributions to radar system design and analysis.

References

External links

David K. Barton's biography at ieee.org
1927 births 2023 deaths People from Greenwich, Connecticut Fellows of the IEEE Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Harvard University alumni Engineers from Connecticut American electrical engineers {{US-electrical-engineer-stub

References

Further reading

Books

External links