Radar
- Date
- 1935 · confidence high
- Place
- Daventry, England
- Credited to
- Robert Watson-Watt and Arnold Wilkins (Daventry experiment, 1935); Christian Hülsmeyer (Telemobiloskop, Cologne, 1904); Randall and Boot (cavity magnetron, Birmingham, 1940)
- People
- 👤 Arnold J Wilkins👤 Christian Hülsmeyer1881–1957👤 Harry Boot1917–1983👤 John Turton Randall1905–1984👤 Robert Watson-Watt1892–1973
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Detection and location of objects by radio-wave echoes. The Chain Home network was decisive in the Battle of Britain; the magnetron enabled airborne microwave radars.
Developed in parallel and in secrecy in Germany (Freya, Würzburg), the United States (NRL), France, the USSR, Japan and the Netherlands. Hülsmeyer demonstrated ship detection in 1904.
What it led to
- Integrated air defence and electronic warfare
- Civil air traffic control
- Microwave oven and radio astronomy
Built on
Made possible
- Cosmic radio waves (Jansky)1932
- LORAN (long-range radio navigation)1942-1943
- Metallic-strip radar countermeasure (Window / chaff)24 de julio de 1943
- Proximity fuze (VT fuze)1940-1943
- Radio-guided bomb (Fritz X and Hs 293)1943
- Microwave oven1945-1947
- Decca Navigator (hyperbolic phase navigation)1944-1946
- Radar echo from the Moon with an electrochemical integrator (Bay)1946
- Commercial jet airliner (Comet, Boeing 707)1949-1958
- Operational surface-to-air guided missile (Nike Ajax)1953-1954 (en servicio, 1954)
- Tellurometer (microwave distance measurement)1954-1957
- Lidar1961
- Deep Space Network (DSN)1958-1965
- Light-intensifying night-vision scope (Starlight scope)1964-1965
- RFID and NFC1973-2004
- Stealth aircraft (F-117 Nighthawk)1981
- Magellan: radar map of Venus and first planetary aerobraking1990-1994
- Automatic Identification System (AIS)1992-2004
- Short-range missile-defence system (Iron Dome)2011
- Air traffic control