The Start of the Laboratory/The Beginnings of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory

William G. Denhard

Abstract:	Columbus wanted to explore new space - new oceans. However, first he had to use self-contained navigation to navigate himself through the politics and egos of Portugal and Spain. Always he had to hustle funds, and always he had to push his crews beyond the limits of their own personal ambitions. Withal, Columbus had to focus rather narrowly on his prime goal in order to get there at all. The foregoing is a pretty good description of the operation of MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory, and its 20th century Columbus, Dot Draper, aka Charles Stark Draper. The MIT Instruments Laboratory, as it was known in the early years, started in a comer of the Aero Department of MIT with a dozen or so people. In time, as the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, it grew to a roster of over 2200 under the drive of a man whose absolute faith in the practicality and need for inertial navigation provided the internal spark and the external financial support. The activities of the early - and we could add late - years of Dot’s leadership were full of enthusiasm, dedication, and many “gut” decisions. Those were the catalysts that ultimately developed the quality of the instruments and the systems making feasible the Fleet Ballistic Missile, MX and the Apollo flights to the moon, among others.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1992) June 29 - 1, 1992 ANA Westin Hotel Dayton, OH
Pages:	449 - 456
Cite this article:	Denhard, William G., "The Start of the Laboratory/The Beginnings of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory," Proceedings of the 48th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1992), Dayton, OH, June 1992, pp. 449-456.
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