Editing MIT Lincoln Laboratory (section)

===Origins===
At the urging of the [[United States Air Force]], the Lincoln Laboratory was created in 1951 at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) as part of an effort to improve the U.S. air defense system.<ref name="y-s">{{cite book |author1-first=Ken |author1-last=Young |author2-first=Warner R. |author2-last=Schilling |title=Super Bomb: Organizational Conflict and the Development of the Hydrogen Bomb |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, New York |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-5017-4516-4 |url=https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501745164/super-bomb | page=125}}</ref> Primary advocates for the creation of the laboratory were veterans of the World War&nbsp;II-era [[MIT Radiation Laboratory]], including physicist and electrical engineer [[Ivan A.&nbsp;Getting]], physicist [[Louis Ridenour]], and physicist [[George E.&nbsp;Valley&nbsp;Jr.]]<ref name="y-s"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/origins.html |title=MIT Lincoln Laboratory: History: Lincoln Laboratory Origins |access-date=2024-03-31 |archive-date=2017-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119093302/http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/origins.html |url-status=deviated }}</ref>

The laboratory's inception was prompted by Valley's investigations into the U.S. air defences, culminating in the Air Defense Systems Engineering Committee's 1950 report that concluded the United States was unprepared for the threat of an air attack. Because of MIT's management of the Radiation Laboratory during [[World War&nbsp;II]], the experience of some of its staff on the Air Defense Systems Engineering Committee, and its proven competence in advanced electronics, the Air Force suggested that MIT could provide the research needed to develop an air defense that could detect, identify, and ultimately intercept air threats.<ref>''MIT Lincoln Laboratory: Technology in the National Interest'', ed. Eva C.&nbsp;Freeman, Lexington, Mass.: MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 1995.</ref>

[[James R. Killian]], the president of MIT, was not eager for MIT to become involved in air defense. He asked the [[United States Air Force]] if MIT could first conduct a study to evaluate the need for a new laboratory and to determine its scope. Killian's proposal was approved, and a study named [[Project Charles]] (for the [[Charles River]] that flows past MIT) was carried out between February and August 1951. The final Project Charles report stated that the United States needed an improved air defense system and unequivocally supported the formation of a laboratory at MIT dedicated to air defense problems.

This new undertaking was initially called {{anchor|Project_Lincoln}}Project Lincoln, and the site chosen for the new laboratory was on the Laurence G.&nbsp;Hanscom Field (now [[Hanscom Air Force Base]]), where the Massachusetts towns of [[Bedford, Massachusetts|Bedford]], [[Lexington, Massachusetts|Lexington]] and [[Lincoln, Massachusetts|Lincoln]] meet. A [[Project Bedford]] (on antisubmarine warfare) and a [[Project Lexington]] (on [[nuclear propulsion]] of [[aircraft]]) were already in use, so Major General Putt, who was in charge of drafting the charter for the new laboratory, decided to name the project for the town of Lincoln.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/projectcharles.html |title=MIT Lincoln Laboratory: History: Lincoln Laboratory established |publisher=Ll.mit.edu |date=1941-06-26 |access-date=2014-05-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204075643/http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/History/projectcharles.html |archive-date=2016-12-04 |url-status=dead }}</ref>