Francis X. Kane

Who is Francis X. Kane?

Colonel Francis "Duke" Xavier Kane, Ph.D., USAF, retired, is the space planner and engineer responsible for the design concept of the Global Positioning System. 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. 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. According to Colonel Brad Parkinson, 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 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 continuouslygenerate 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.