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This is a story that really needs a “Richard Rhodes - The making of electronic warfare” treatment like the Manhattan project got. I work in radar (and formerly

This is a story that really needs a “Richard Rhodes - The making of electronic warfare” treatment like the Manhattan project got. I work in radar (and formerly in nuclear research) and have been stitching together a historical picture of the developments of US radar technology, but it is incoherent (pun intended) at best.

rjsw 2y ago
I don't think the UK side of making radar into products is very well documented either, there is some on the research done by TRE [1] but less on what was done in industry. My grandfather designed and was in charge of production of the Chain Home transmitters at Metrovick [2], he worked on centimetric systems after this as there is a family story of him sleeping with one of the prototype Cavity Magnetrons under his pillow to keep it safe from air raids. He also built the transmitter for the first AWACS, a Wellington bomber, and helped fit it into the aircraft, but this is presented as just a TRE project. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Research_Establishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Research_Es... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan-Vickers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan-Vickers
- lokimedes 2y ago
  Indeed. And with the wheel of history turning, the organizational structure and political maneuvering that it took to invest in these newfangled modes of warfare, is also important to understand.
- jordanb 2y ago
  Once the Rad Lab got involved, the UK focused on more theoretical or foundational aspects of the technology and let the Rad Lab develop the actual weapons systems. The anti-submarine radar was a good example: the British developed the sea-scan radar, but testing showed it was very difficult for a bomber crew to use it to actually get the plane on-target so the Rad Lab developed the radar-driven autopilot and integrated it with the B-24s. I think the H2S radar was developed entirely by the British with limited US/Rad Lab involvement though. Amazing story about your grandfather! Actually the cavity magnetron played a key role in starting the Rad Lab. The US was still neutral at this point and Churchill decided to "gift" one of the prototypes as well as some scientists to explain how it works to the US in hopes that the US would create radar sets. On the way over the scientists decided to give the crew of the convoy ship a physics lecture, but they couldn't talk about what they worked on so they decided to talk about something that could not possibly be relevant to the war: nuclear fission.
  - rjsw 2y ago
    The UK had longer wavelength radar on aircraft before the US entered the war, the biplane attack planes flying off carriers looked old-fashioned but they could find their targets at night and land safely again. To circle back to the subject of the thread, after WWII my grandfather was in charge of the research lab at Metrovick, his final job before retirement was to close it down.

rjsw 2y ago

I don't think the UK side of making radar into products is very well documented either, there is some on the research done by TRE [1] but less on what was done in industry. My grandfather designed and was in charge of production of the Chain Home transmitters at Metrovick [2], he worked on centimetric systems after this as there is a family story of him sleeping with one of the prototype Cavity Magnetrons under his pillow to keep it safe from air raids. He also built the transmitter for the first AWACS, a Wellington bomber, and helped fit it into the aircraft, but this is presented as just a TRE project. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Research_Establishment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Research_Es... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan-Vickers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan-Vickers

lokimedes 2y ago
Indeed. And with the wheel of history turning, the organizational structure and political maneuvering that it took to invest in these newfangled modes of warfare, is also important to understand.
jordanb 2y ago
Once the Rad Lab got involved, the UK focused on more theoretical or foundational aspects of the technology and let the Rad Lab develop the actual weapons systems. The anti-submarine radar was a good example: the British developed the sea-scan radar, but testing showed it was very difficult for a bomber crew to use it to actually get the plane on-target so the Rad Lab developed the radar-driven autopilot and integrated it with the B-24s. I think the H2S radar was developed entirely by the British with limited US/Rad Lab involvement though. Amazing story about your grandfather! Actually the cavity magnetron played a key role in starting the Rad Lab. The US was still neutral at this point and Churchill decided to "gift" one of the prototypes as well as some scientists to explain how it works to the US in hopes that the US would create radar sets. On the way over the scientists decided to give the crew of the convoy ship a physics lecture, but they couldn't talk about what they worked on so they decided to talk about something that could not possibly be relevant to the war: nuclear fission.
- rjsw 2y ago
  The UK had longer wavelength radar on aircraft before the US entered the war, the biplane attack planes flying off carriers looked old-fashioned but they could find their targets at night and land safely again. To circle back to the subject of the thread, after WWII my grandfather was in charge of the research lab at Metrovick, his final job before retirement was to close it down.