Radar Days

Book excerpt: It is now more than sixty years since radar began in Britain. In the intervening years, airborne radar has become one of the most important branches of civilian and military radar. In Radar Days, "the father of airborne radar," Dr. "Taffy" Bowen recounts his personal story of how the first airborne radars were built and brought into use in the Royal Air Force, and of the Tizard mission to the USA in 1940, of which he was a member. Written from the point of view of the individuals who worked at the laboratory bench, the story begins with the building of the first ground air-warning radar at Orfordness in June 1935. The book proceeds to describe how this equipment was miniaturized to make it suitable for use in aircraft and the lengthy, sometimes hazardous flight trials conducted before radar went into service with the RAF. The author also details the activities of the Tizard mission, which was instrumental in installing the first airborne radars in US aircraft. The greatest achievement of the mission was to pass on the secret of the resonant magnetron to the US only a few months after its invention at Birmingham University. This was the device that brought about a revolution in Allied radar, putting it far ahead of the corresponding German technology for the remainder of the war.