Francis X. Kane

Colonel Francis "Duke" Xavier Kane, Ph.D., USAF, retired, (December 12, 1918 – July 18, 2013 ) is the space planner and engineer responsible for the design concept of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Colonel Kane was General Bernard A. Schriever's Chief for Space and Ballistic Missile Planning at the U.S. Air Force Systems Command from 1961-1970. Colonel Kane was a participant in Project Forecast (1963–1964). Project Forecast was the longest range technology forecast undertaken by the U.S. military prior to 1963. Project Forecast contemplated the strategic technological environment of 1975 and the requirements for U.S. advancements in air, space, missile and computer technology.

In 1963, the Air Force Space Systems Division funded Colonel Kane to lead a classified project known as 621B. Phase I of 621B was for the engineering concept for a "space-based navigation system" that would later become known as the Global Positioning System (GPS/NAVSTAR). According to Colonel Brad Parkinson (USAF, retired), Project 621B had "many of the attributes that you now see in GPS. It has probably never been given its due credit."

Colonel Kane formed the 621B team consisting of Air Force engineers and Aerospace corporation contractors in Los Angeles to lay the foundation for GPS development. The concept of operations established in Phase I was for a space-based system enabling 3-dimensional location (longitude, latitude, and altitude) globally, in all weather, at all times transmitting on a frequency established by the Scientific Advisory Board. The satellites use a time-differ-ence-of-arrival concept using precise satellite posi-tion and on-board atomic clocks to continuously generate navigation messages that can be receivedby users anywhere on Earth. The engineering concept addressed that a minimum of 24 satellites would be required for global coverage, at an altitude of 10,000 nautical miles, at 55 degrees inclination, and powered by hybrid solar and battery energy sources.

From 1964 to 1966, several Aerospace corporation team members made outstanding contributions to GPS studies on the U.S. Air Force 621B team led by Colonel Kane. "These men included of Phil Diamonds, Peter W. Soule, James B. Woodford, Alfred Bogen, Richard Dutcher, Howard F. Marx, and Hideyoshi Nakamura. It was Nakamura and some of his coworkers who suggested that range measurements for an aircraft should be calculated using signals from four satellites. The aircraft's crewmembers could then obtain a three-dimensional position by measuring four distinct differences in the signals' arrival times and then adding these to a clock connected to a quartz oscillator. Each satellite would also have its own clock, which would be updated continuously by ground signals. In essence, this was the operational concept that eventually led to GPS as it is known today."

...
Wikipedia