Reeves Instrument Corporation (RICO) was a

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

manufacturer of computer and radar systems for the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The corporation was the Project Cyclone laboratory operator for simulation of guided missiles, and RICO developed several

Strategic Air Command Strategic Air Command (SAC) was both a United States Department of Defense Specified Command and a United States Air Force (USAF) Major Command responsible for command and control of the strategic bomber and intercontinental ballistic missile ...

combination (radar/computer/communications) systems ("Q" systems).

History

Reeves was originally "Hudson American…just a little bit before the end of

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

" and in 1946 Reeves Sound Laboratory, a division of Reeves-Ely Laboratories (R.E.L.), was researching "advance gunfire control systems and computers; radar and tracking systems;

guided missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket ...

controls; aircraft control instruments… (Research initiated 1942.)" RICO was awarded the

Department of the Navy Navy Department or Department of the Navy may refer to: * United States Department of the Navy, * Navy Department (Ministry of Defence), in the United Kingdom, 1964-1997 * Confederate States Department of the Navy, 1861-1865 * Department of the ...

contract No. N60ori-128 on June 10, 1946, for "development of a guided missile simulator and the operation of a simulation laboratory orresearch and development on guided missile simulation" and "development and construction of a rapid and precise automatic analog computer suitable for detailed simulation of guided missiles". The contract's Task Order III on June 12, 1947, required Reeves provide "a simulation laboratory, the Project Cyclone Laboratory, which was to be operated by the Reeves Analysis and Computer Group." Reeves built the lab's original Reeves Electronic Analog Computers in 1947, and a new computing lab of REACs was contracted under Task Order III in 1949. "The guided missile simulator of Task Order II was completed in early 1949

ith a The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany. Geography Location The Ith is immediatel ...

satisfactory demonstration in February 1949 of the guided missile simulator solving a three-dimensional guided missile problem". Early in the

, Reeves developed and tested the N/MSQ-2ABomb Scoring Central, a variant of the MSQ-2 Close Support Control Set developed by

Rome Air Development Center Rome Laboratory (Rome Air Development Center until 1991) is the US "Air Force 'superlab' for command, control, and communications" research and development and is responsible for planning and executing the USAF science and technology program. ...

. Bomb Scoring Centrals by RICO were used for

Radar Bomb Scoring Radar Bomb Scoring is a combat aviation ground support operation used to evaluate Cold War aircrews' effectiveness with simulated unguided bomb drops near radar stations of the United States Navy, the USAF Strategic Air Command, and Army Project ...

(RBS), as well as

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

ground-directed bombing Ground-directed bombing (GDB) is a military tactic for airstrikes by ground-attack aircraft, strategic bombers, and other equipped air vehicles under command guidance from aviation ground support equipment and/or ground personnel (e.g., grou ...

(GDB) controlled by TADPOLE sites. "Reeves Instrument Corporation asa wholly owned subsidiary of … Claude Neon, Inc." on April 15, 1955, when the former merged into

Dynamics Corporation of America Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dynam ...

; and on January 20, 1956, the other Reeves division of Neon—Reeves-Ely Laboratories, Inc.--also merged into Dynamics. In 1958, RICO moved production to its

Roosevelt Field Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...

plant on East Gate Blvd in

Garden City, New York Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...

. In the early 1960s, the Reeves AN/MSQ-35 Bomb Scoring Central was produced for

RBS and in 1965, the Reeves AN/MSQ-77 Bomb Directing Central was built for

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

GDB. Reeves also produced a 1967 transportable variant of the vacuum tube AN/MSQ-77, and one of the AN/TSQ-81 variants was destroyed after the

Battle of Lima Site 85 The Battle of Lima Site 85, also called Battle of Phou Pha Thi, was fought as part of a military campaign waged during the Vietnam War and Laotian Civil War by the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the Pathet Lao, against ai ...

in Laos. By the end of the war the vacuum-tube Reeves AN/TSQ-96 Bomb Directing Central with a solid state Univac 1219B ballistic computer was being used for GDB.

References

{{Reflist , refs= {{cite court , litigants=Dynamics Corporation of America v. United States , vol=tbd , reporter=U.S. , opinion=tbd , date=October 15, 1971 , url=http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/449/449.F2d.402.178-68.html , quote=''…the gain from this real estate sale should be attributed to Reeves Instrument Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the plaintiff … Claude Neon, Inc. … Effective April 15, 1955, ''

eon Eon or Eons may refer to: Time * Aeon, an indefinite long period of time * Eon (geology), a division of the geologic time scale Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Eon, in the 2007 film ''Ben 10: Race Against Time'' * Eon, in the ...

' merged into Dynamics Corporation… Effective January 20, 1956, Reeves-Ely Laboratories, Inc…also merged into Dynamics. Prior to the latter merger, Reeves-Ely had been a controlled subsidiary of Neon'' Avionics companies Analog computers Defunct computer hardware companies Defense companies of the United States Defunct computer companies of the United States American companies established in 1944 Manufacturing companies established in 1944 Technology companies established in 1944 Computer companies disestablished in 1995 Manufacturing companies disestablished in 1995 Technology companies disestablished in 1995 1944 establishments in New York (state) 1995 disestablishments in New York (state) Defunct manufacturing companies based in New York City