Ivan A. Getting, a physicist and electrical engineer who envisioned and then pushed for the development of today’s ubiquitous Global Positioning System, has died. He was 91.
Getting, who was also the founding president of El Segundo, Calif.-based Aerospace Corp., died in his sleep Oct. 11 at his home in Coronado, Calif. No exact cause of death was announced by the family. During World War II, Getting directed the Division of Fire Control and Army Radar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his group developed the microwave tracking radar that was credited with destroying 95 percent of the V-1 cruise bombs used by Germany against England. He later worked on anti-aircraft gun technology and ballistic missile and space launch systems.
His work earned him dozens of major awards. His achievements were capped in February when Getting was named a co-recipient of the National Academy of Engineering’s $500,000 Charles Stark Draper Prize. The Draper prize is considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineering.
GPS, now an everyday tool for hikers and drivers, as well as the military, is considered the most important achievement in navigation in the 20th century. “It’s had such a profound effect on the world at large, one has to conclude it’s a remarkable engineering achievement,” said Bob Evans, an engineer and venture capitalist in Menlo Park, Calif., who headed the committee that granted the Draper award nine months before Getting’s death.
