Its capability has put India firmly on the world radar map," a radar specialist was quoted as saying.

But a radar specialist in Burbank recognized its potential and took it to Mr. Rich in 1975.

"Can't be separated by more than maybe a hundred feet, sir," the radar specialist said.

A radar specialist came up to him with a sheaf of papers.

Then Land went to the MIT Lincoln Laboratory to recruit radar specialists for the work.

"It's a bit like holding a sheet of paper between yourself and a light," according to Dr. Leon Peters, a radar specialist at Ohio State University.

Ashiq Hussain, a 47-year-old radar specialist from Pakistan who had been employed by the Kuwaiti Air Force, said that "mentally, all the people were upset."

In 1943, after two years as a student at University of Massachusetts, he joined the Army Air Corps, where he was trained as a radar specialist.

Members pay $30 a meeting; attendees tour La Guardia's air traffic control tower and hear from flight attendants, mechanics, radar specialists and psychologists.

He served four years as a radar specialist in aircraft armament control in the United States Air Force.