- Henri G. Busignies
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name = Henri G. Busignies
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awards =IEEE Edison Medal
footnotes =Henri Gaston Busignies (
Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine ,France , 29 December 1905 -Antibes ,France , 20 June 1981) was anelectrical engineer who made major contributions toradar ,radio communication , andradio navigation . He held 140 patents, many of them secret.Biography
Busignies became interested in
amateur radio at an early age, and graduated from the Jules Ferry College inVersailles . In 1926 he received his degree inelectrical engineering from the Institute Normal Electro Technique inParis ] , having obtained his first patent, for a radio compass.In 1928 Busignies joined
ITT Corporation 's Paris Laboratories, where he developed radio direction finders, airplane radio navigation devices, and earlyradar systems. In 1936 his equipment automatically guided an airplane from Paris toRéunion island off the coast ofMadagascar , in the first practical demonstration of an aircraft guidance system.During World War II his inventions were instrumental in
radio direction finding , including four secret patents relating to the automatic high-frequency direction finding (Huff-Duff ) system used to locate GermanU-boat s. Busignies had escaped from German-occupied Paris with his wife and working models, ultimately making his way to the United States, where the inventions were implemented first along the East Coast, then the West Coast, with another 30 to 40 fixed stations located around the world. About 1,000 smaller systems were installed onaircraft carrier s anddestroyer s, as well as a further 1,500 mobile systems for theArmy Signal Corps . He was also closely involved in early development ofMoving Target Indicator (MTI) radar during the war.After the war, Busignies remained in the United States, where he rose steadily through ranks of ITT's senior management, ultimately becoming the corporation's Chief Scientist. His inventions included contributions to
Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) technology, conical scanning and 3-dimensional radar, gunfire and shell trajectory control, and deception systems. He also played a large role in development of ILS, TACAN,VORTAC ,phased array s for communications, and the use of dipole needles in orbit for reflection of radio waves (Project West Ford ). He retired from ITT in 1975.Busignies was an
IEEE Fellow , and given an honorary Doctor of Science by Newark College of Engineering (1958), and theBrooklyn Polytechnic Institute (1971). He received numerous other awards and honors during his career, including notably theIEEE Edison Medal (1977), theArmstrong Medal from theRadio Club of America , and the Industrial Research Institute Medal. He was elected a member of theNational Academy of Engineering (1966), and served as chairman of several of its committees.ources
* [http://www.ieee.org/web/aboutus/history_center/biography/busignies.html IEEE History Site]
* [http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=565&page=28 Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 2 (1984), pp. 28-34.]
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