Project Charles was a summer study group held at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT), of which F.W. Loomis was the appointed head. An agreement was made between U.S. General Gordon P. Saville,

Louis Ridenour Louis N. Ridenour (June 27, 1911 – May 21, 1959) was a physicist instrumental in the U.S. development of radar, Vice President of Lockheed, and an advisor to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Biography and positions held During World War II, ...

, Ivan Getting and

John McCone John Alexander McCone (January 4, 1902 – February 14, 1991) was an American businessman and government official who served as Director of Central Intelligence from 1961 to 1965, during the height of the Cold War. Background John A. McCone wa ...

of the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

and designated leaders of MIT, for the formation of the project. Preceding events such as the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

and the first detonation of a nuclear device by the then

U.S.S.R. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the largest country by are ...

, during the 29th of August 1949, were possible catalysts and pre-conditions for the military to find it necessary to form the project. Initially a letter contract was issued during January the 30th of 1951, and the two parties entered into contractual obligations during the 6th of August 1951 via Basic Agreement AF18(600)-11. The agreement was formalized as AF19(122)-458 during February 1952, and continued until the 1st day of January 1959. At its initiation, the task of the project was to address by analysis, the problem of the development of technology to use for an effective air defence of the U.S. The goal of the project was to create a network of computers connected to a command centre in order to organise a response to a threat from within U.S. air-space. The project was active during February 1951, and released its report during the 1st day of August of the same year.S. Bridger
Scientists at War
published by Harvard University Press, 6 Apr 2015, etrieved 2015-08-09/ref>

MITRE Corporation The Mitre Corporation (stylized as The MITRE Corporation and MITRE) is an American not-for-profit organization with dual headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia. It manages federally funded research and development centers ...

assumed the responsibilities identified as the project from January the 1st 1959, and the work developed ultimately into the

SAGE project The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...

References

{{Reflist Projects of the United States Air Force

See also

References