Carl Atwood Wiley (December 30, 1918 – April 21, 1985) was an American mathematician and engineer. He is most widely known as the originator of the

solar sail Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigati ...

concept as well as the inventor of

synthetic aperture radar Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is a form of radar that is used to create two-dimensional images or 3D reconstruction, three-dimensional reconstructions of objects, such as landscapes. SAR uses the motion of the radar antenna over a target regi ...

Career

Wiley's research work began at the Air Force Aircraft Radiation Lab at

Wright Field Wilbur Wright Field was a military installation and an airfield used as a World War I pilot, mechanic, and armorer training facility and, under different designations, conducted United States Army Air Corps and Air Forces flight testing. Loc ...

in 1941. In 1942 he discovered the

piezoelectricity Piezoelectricity (, ) is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials—such as crystals, certain ceramics, and biological matter such as bone, DNA, and various proteins—in response to applied mechanical stress. The piezoel ...

Barium titanate Barium titanate (BTO) is an inorganic compound with chemical formula BaTiO3. It is the barium salt of metatitanic acid. Barium titanate appears white as a powder and is transparent when prepared as large crystals. It is a Ferroelectricity, ferroe ...

, for which he later was awarded a patent. In 1949 he went to work as the engineer-in-charge of Goodyear Aerophysics. It was during this time he invented

in 1951, patented as "Pulsed Doppler Radar Methods and Means," #3,196,436. That same year Wiley posited the idea of solar sails in a science fiction story published in ''

Astounding Science Fiction ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William C ...

'' magazine entitled ''Clipper Ships of Space'' (originally titled ''Are the Clipper Ships gone forever?''). Wiley wrote his story under the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

of Russel Saunders, an in-group reference to

Russel–Saunders coupling In quantum mechanics, angular momentum coupling is the procedure of constructing eigenstates of total angular momentum out of eigenstates of separate angular momenta. For instance, the orbit and spin of a single particle can interact through spi ...

not unlike J.J. Coupling, itself a reference to

angular momentum Angular momentum (sometimes called moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of Momentum, linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a Conservation law, conserved quantity – the total ang ...

. Seven years later Richard L. Garwin developed the first technical specifications for a solar sail. Robert L. Forward credited Wiley for the genesis of the idea in Forward's 1990 patent. Wiley's research and manuscripts for the story are now housed in the Eaton collection. In 1953 he left Goodyear to found his own company, Wiley Electronics in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

until it was bought out in 1962. Following that Wiley worked for

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F- ...

and its successor,

Rockwell International Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avioni ...

where he worked on various radar projects including LOCO, SINCO, VOLPHASE, and VOLFRE. In 1978 he went to work at

Hughes Aircraft Company The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes in Glendale, California, as a division of the Hughes Tool Company. The company produced the Hughes H-4 Hercules air ...

where he eventually retired as a chief scientist in the technology division of Hughes' Space and Communications Group. In 1985,

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

awarded Wiley their Pioneer Award.

References

1918 births 1985 deaths Antioch College alumni Ohio State University alumni Science fiction academics Scientists from Princeton, New Jersey Writers from Princeton, New Jersey 20th-century American mathematicians Synthetic aperture radar {{US-mathematician-stub

Career

See also

References