Colonel Francis X. "Duke" Kane, Ph.D., USAF, retired, (born December 12, 1918) is the space planner and engineer responsible for the design concept of the Global Positioning System (GPS).[1] Colonel Kane was General Bernard A. Schriever's Chief for Space and Ballistic Missile Planning at the U.S. Air Force Systems Command from 1961-1970. Colonel Kane was responsible for space systems planning in Project Forecast (1963–1964). Project Forecast was the longest range technology forecast undertaken by the U.S. military prior to 1963. Project forecast contemplated the strategic technological environment of 1975 and the requirements for U.S. advancements in air, space, missile and computer technology.
In 1963, the Air Force Space Systems Division funded Colonel Kane to lead a classified project known as 621B. Phase I of 621B was for the engineering concept for a "space-based navigation system" that would later become known as the Global Positioning System (GPS). According to Colonel Brad Parkinson (USAF, retired), Project 621B had "many of the attributes that you now see in GPS. It has probably never been given its due credit." [2]
Colonel Kane formed the 621B team consisting of Air Force engineers and Aerospace corporation contractors in Los Angeles to lay the foundation for GPS development.[3] The concept of operations established in Phase I was for a space-based system enabling 3-dimensional (x, y, z) time globally, in all weather, at all times transmitting on a frequency established by the Scientific Advisory Board.[4] The engineering concept addressed that a minimum of 24 satellites would be required for global coverage, at an altitude of 10,000 nautical miles, at 55 degrees inclination, and powered by hybrid solar and battery energy sources.[5]
From 1964 to 1966, several Aerospace corporation team members made outstanding contributions to GPS studies on the U.S. Air Force 621B team led by Colonel Kane. "These men included of Phil Diamonds, Peter W. Soule, James B. Woodford, Alfred Bogen, Richard Dutcher, Howard F. Marx, and Hideyoshi Nakamura. It was Nakamura and some of his coworkers who suggested that range measurements for an aircraft should be calculated using signals from four satellites. The aircraft's crewmembers could then obtain a three-dimensional position by measuring four distinct differences in the signals' arrival times and then adding these to a clock connected to a quartz oscillator. Each satellite would also have its own clock, which would be updated continuously by ground signals. In essence, this was the operational concept that eventually led to GPS as it is known today."[6]
In 1967, under Phase II of 621B, system design, Colonel Kane and a team from TRW refined the concept of operation, performed engineering design for multiple systems, began test programs for receivers, conceptualized satellite control and operations including on-orbit tracking (satellite/star tracking), and preliminary design of the GPS satellites.[7]
For his role in space technology development and the engineering design concept of GPS, Colonel Kane was inducted into the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame at Lackland A.F.B., San Antonio, Texas, March 2, 2010.[8] Colonel Kane's role in space systems development is authenticated by the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Command including: "Concepts forwarded by Colonel Kane during the 1960s included space-based missile warning (Defense Support Program), space-based missile defense, manned maneuvering reentry vehicles (Space Shuttle), detection and attack of mobile missiles, laser anti-satellite weapons [ASAT], the advanced ballistic missile (MX or Peacekeeper), and a navigation satellite (NAVSAT or GPS) system."[9]
Colonel Kane's role in U.S. national competitiveness, innovation and security is one of planner, design engineer, and technology strategist. He conceptualized a systems approach to space planning that provided a platform upon which General Schriever executed a high technology defense strategy to build the U.S. Air Force space and missile capability—ushering in the Space Age.
The book "Strategy of Technology"[10] (1970) sets forth the doctrine flowing from the early plans developed by Project Forecast and the development and deployment of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system. Initially, Kane was unnamed in the 1970 publication of the book. Stefan T. Possony and Jerry Pournelle were able to later add Colonel Kane's attribution in 1972 after he retired (1970). The strategy of technology doctrine is exemplified by opponents' economies failing to keep pace with investments in high technology countermeasures. The doctrine is exemplified by a systems approach to engineering, science and acquisition.
