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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 2328.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 November 1951 649 U.S. RADIO AND RADAR RESEARCH ILLUSTRATED on this page are some aspects ofcurrent American research and development in, first,aircraft radio and, second, early-warning radar. The radio experiments are being made by the Aircraft Radia- tion Systems Laboratory of the Stanford Research Institute in California, under the sponsorship of the U.S.A.F, Research Laboratories at Cambridge, Mass. Work now in progress is concerned with, inter alia, developing more efficient methods of utilizing parts of the aircraft structure itself as an aerial for low and medium frequencies; finding a narrow-beam microwave- aerial structure suited to "suppressed" mounting within the air- frame; establishing the use of electrostatic methods and optical analogies in antenna research; and advancing investigation in the general study of airborne communications and navigation re- quirements in order to establish practical criteria for the evaluation of various aerial configurations. Some of the equipment now in use in this work is shown in the photographs. On behalf of the Communication and Naviga- tion Laboratory of the U.S. Air Materiel Command at Wright Field, Ohio, the Laboratory has also completed the development of a multiplexing system for aircraft communications and naviga- tion equipment. This system, it is reported, provides for simul- taneous operation, on an integrated aerial system, of all the major aids in current use. The radar picture is from the American General Electric Company, who disclosed recently that they have completed a U.S.A.F. order for "the largest and most complex radar systems ever produced." Early-warning equipment of the type shown is being installed at posts (number and location not revealed) in the "radar fence" now protecting the U.S. and Canada. Some 400 personnel are needed to man, on a 24-hour basis, the multiple operational positions at each installation. A#ingle system can intercept a large number of raids simultaneously. Installations in Arctic regions are to be protected from the weather by rubberized-fabric radomes of the type shown, sup- ported entirely by air pressure. An aluminium framework is used to raise the dome, which is 54ft in diameter and 36ft high, ^d is retracted into the floor, so as not to cause signal inter- ference, after it has been inflated by a low-pressure air supply. It is stated that under an internal pressure of only 0.5 lb/sq in. the dome will withstand winds of up to 125 m.p.h. Infra-red lamps trained on the walls keep them free of ice and snow. Above, left, is part of the Stanford Research Institute's outdoor equipment for aircraft-aerial research. The lower tower-mounted model can be rotated about vertical and horizontal axes whilst the signals which its aerials receive from a distant transmitter are measured. Above, right, a model is seen in an electrostatic cage whereby low-frequency-radio fields are simulated. The lower picture shows the big protective-fabric dome of the G.E.C. early-warning radar being raised to the operating position.
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