Project Cyclone was a 20-year initiative of the US

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

that lasted from 1946 to the mid-1960s. It was one of a series of projects whose purpose was to develop a computer laboratory with a company in the

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that would do

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on missile systems, as well as on classified problems in navigation, ballistics, engine control, electrical circuit analysis, and other fields. A secondary motivation was to strengthen the US's connections with civilian scientists and technology companies that had developed during WWII. Project Cyclone was a partnership with Reeves Instrument Corporation. There were two sister projects: Project Whirlwind, which was a partnership with the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

to build a digital computer (resulting in the

Whirlwind I Whirlwind I was a Cold War-era vacuum tube computer developed by the MIT Servomechanisms Laboratory for the U.S. Navy. Operational in 1951, it was among the first digital electronic computers that operated in real-time for output, and the first t ...

), and Project Typhoon, which was a partnership to build an analog computer with RCA. The project led to the development of the original Reeves Electronic Analog Computer (or "REAC"), as well as subsequent models. Under the auspices of Project Cyclone, Reeves personnel would also be responsible for operating competitors' hardware in the lab, such as the ELECOM 100, produced by Electronic Computer Corporation. This was generally done to test the results of the Reeves-built machines in the lab. The offices of the project were originally located on the premises of Reeves Instrument Corporation in

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, but by the 1950s the project had expanded such that it required three separate computer laboratories. The largest Project Cyclone lab contained 13 full REAC machines. Project Cyclone, jointly with Reeves, was the organizer of multiple

symposium In ancient Greece, the symposium ( grc-gre, συμπόσιον ''symposion'' or ''symposio'', from συμπίνειν ''sympinein'', "to drink together") was a part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was acc ...

s on analog computers. The first one was held in March 1951 in NYC, and was attended by 141 visitors from elite engineering organizations all over the world, such as the Applied Physics Laboratory and the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

. The proceedings of these symposia were published under the title "Project Cyclone Symposium on REAC Techniques".

References

{{reflist, 30em Military projects of the United States Military research of the United States