System engineering in theory and practice

An account is given of the many areas of science and engineering that are involved in the complex fields of aircraft and missile engineering. The manner in which system engineering allows co-ordination of these activities into a coherent scheme is outlined, together with an indication of the theoretical tools at the disposal of the System Engineer. A detailed description is then given of an ¿on-line¿ process control analogue computer of novel principles. An arithmetic unit consisting of a minimum number of computing amplifiers and multipliers is used to solve the equations in a piece-wise fashion according to a pre-set programme in which each step is selected sequentially by a switch system. Stores are used to retain information on the result of a step in the solution, these data being used in a later stage of the computation. Some trends for the future are briefly examined and a forecast is made of certain subjects which will merit further study, if the rapid progress of automatic control systems is to be maintained.