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Saw this clip from a Dick Shawn/ Jerry Lewis flick, Way Way Out (1966) and immediately recognized some of the props in the background. NORAD had over 20 "SAGE" Air Defense systems when the first came on line in the late 50s. Somewhere in the 1960s, the Air Force downsized to just (I think) 6 NORAD regions.
When they downsized, Hollywood bought a bunch of the consoles and hooked up the lights to flash randomly and look cool.
In the First picture, a snapshot from the subject movie. In the background you can see some consoles with long narrow "channels."
These were part of the "Long Range Radar" input console that was in teh Maintenance room at the NORAD SAGE system (see the second picture). The Maintenance room had maintenance consoles to monitor and run tests on the dual SAGE computers, and in the back of the room as this long console full of "channels" that allowed us to monitor the data and health of the several radar sites in teh region that fed the site radar data.
When they downsized, Hollywood bought a bunch of the consoles and hooked up the lights to flash randomly and look cool.
In the First picture, a snapshot from the subject movie. In the background you can see some consoles with long narrow "channels."
These were part of the "Long Range Radar" input console that was in teh Maintenance room at the NORAD SAGE system (see the second picture). The Maintenance room had maintenance consoles to monitor and run tests on the dual SAGE computers, and in the back of the room as this long console full of "channels" that allowed us to monitor the data and health of the several radar sites in teh region that fed the site radar data.
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smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 

