Iconorama
Iconorama
Cold War rear projection display used by U.S. & Canadian military
Iconorama was a Cold War electronic projection system for graphic presentation ("stylized display using an etched plate to produce symbols")[1] developed by the firm Fenske, Fedrick and Miller. The Iconorama was ordered by the United States Air Force in 1959.[2]
The mechanism used a rear projection display, showing both a map overlay from a fixed lantern slide and dynamically updated data from a mechanical plotter.[3] [4][5] The mechanism for etching the slide is somewhat similar to an Etch A Sketch. The display can draw lines and characters, but cannot erase them individually.
The unit was used in the IBM 473L Command and Control System's[6] Large Panel Display Subsystem (e.g., at the National Military Command Center and the Alternate Military Command Center).[7] Advertised in 1961 by Temco Aircraft Corp. (already a subsidiary of Ling-Temco Electronics, Inc.),[8][9][10] the system used "a coated slide...one inch square" that was scribed "by a moving stylus" to make traces (e.g., for paths of attacking bombers).[11] The unit was used by the Strategic Air Command,[8] in the Marine Technical Data System[6] and at the Air Force Command Post,[12] Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center,[13] Pacific Missile Range, Point Mugu Calif.; the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico; the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and the Naval Research Laboratory.[11] NORAD's Combined Operations Center[12] at the Chidlaw Building[14] and BMEWS Central Computer and Display Facility at Ent AFB used Iconorama,[15] and in 1971 an Iconorama was still being used by NORAD[6] for BMEWS.[6]