[GH85Carrera]

BEMAC (Boeing Electro-Mechanical Analog Computer) (Seattle 1948). Aerospace engineers from the Physical Research Unit are adjusting potentiometer settings on an unusual hybrid computer used in aerodynamic research relating to Boeing's Ground-to-Air Pilotless Aircraft (GAPA) program for the US Air Force. It could electronically simulate the flight of short-range anti-aircraft surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). The electronic part of the computer used 3000 Vacuum tubes and was connected via a cable harness to a table-mounted section containing twenty electromechanical integrators that performed the role of differential analyzer for solving the Newtonian equations of motion. Trajectory information was output to an oscilloscope screen and photographed. As a result of this theoretical research, Boeing was able to build a ramjet powered vehicle that set an altitude record of 18,000 m in 1949. GAPA faced strong competition from the US Army's Nike missile system, and was eventually canceled in favor of Nike for deployment. However the experience developed was not lost, it was re-used by the Boeing and Project Wizard team at the Michigan Aeronautical Research Center to develop a much longer-ranged (320 km) Mach 3 winged missile called the CIM-10 Bomarc capable of reaching 24,000 m in altitude!