MIT Lincoln Laboratory

The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and development activities focus on long-term technology development as well as rapid system prototyping and demonstration. Its core competencies are in sensors, integrated sensing, signal processing for information extraction, decision-making support, and communications. These efforts are aligned within ten mission areas. The laboratory also maintains several field sites around the world.

The laboratory transfers much of its advanced technology to government agencies, industry, and academia, and has launched more than 100 start-ups.

At the urging of the United States Air Force, the Lincoln Laboratory was created in 1951 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as part of an effort to improve the U.S. air defense system. Primary advocates for the creation of the laboratory were veterans of the World War II-era MIT Radiation Laboratory, including physicist and electrical engineer Ivan A. Getting, physicist Louis Ridenour, and physicist George E. Valley Jr.

The laboratory's inception was prompted by Valley's investigations into the U.S. air defences, culminating in the Air Defense Systems Engineering Committee's 1950 report that concluded the United States was unprepared for the threat of an air attack. Because of MIT's management of the Radiation Laboratory during World War II, the experience of some of its staff on the Air Defense Systems Engineering Committee, and its proven competence in advanced electronics, the Air Force suggested that MIT could provide the research needed to develop an air defense that could detect, identify, and ultimately intercept air threats.

James R. Killian, the president of MIT, was not eager for MIT to become involved in air defense. He asked the United States Air Force if MIT could first conduct a study to evaluate the need for a new laboratory and to determine its scope. Killian's proposal was approved, and a study named Project Charles (for the Charles River that flows past MIT) was carried out between February and August 1951. The final Project Charles report stated that the United States needed an improved air defense system and unequivocally supported the formation of a laboratory at MIT dedicated to air defense problems.

This new undertaking was initially called Project Lincoln, and the site chosen for the new laboratory was on the Laurence G. Hanscom Field (now Hanscom Air Force Base), where the Massachusetts towns of Bedford, Lexington and Lincoln meet. A Project Bedford (on antisubmarine warfare) and a Project Lexington (on nuclear propulsion of aircraft) were already in use, so Major General Putt, who was in charge of drafting the charter for the new laboratory, decided to name the project for the town of Lincoln.

The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) Air Defense System is the beginning of MIT Lincoln Laboratory's history of developing innovative technology. The system was conceived to meet the challenge of providing air defense to the continental United States. SAGE was designed to collect, analyze, and finally relay data from a multitude of radars, all quickly enough that defense responses could be initiated, if needed. The key to this system was a computer that could perform reliably in real time.

MIT's Whirlwind computer, built in the 1940s, looked to be a possible candidate for the system. However, the Whirlwind was not reliable or fast enough for the processing needed for analyzing data coming in from dozens of, perhaps even 100, radars. Jay Wright Forrester, an MIT professor instrumental in the development of the Whirlwind, found the breakthrough to enable the computer to achieve outstanding reliability and doubled speed — the magnetic-core memory. The magnetic-core memory revolutionized computing. Computers became machines that were not just large and fast calculators; their uses for varying applications grew. Industry followed this development closely, adopting the magnetic-core memory that expanded the capabilities of computers.