On the Radar talk you will see how all these systems worked.
You will also find out about Pip Squeak. The next part of the
talk covers the advances made in Radar and the role played by
RAF Neatishead.
The pilot was often disoriented and with only a compass for
navigation they used the High Frequency Direction Finding
System - Huff/Duff to help guide the pilot home.
There were two parts to the system. The base station with a
Radio and rotatable antenna and the plotting table.
After the position of the enemy aircraft has been determined
the information is passed on the operations centre. In the WW2
area we have it set up as it was at Biggin Hill and have some of
the original Artefacts from there.
By using the Tote Board and side boards the status of all the
squadrons can be tracked.
EARLY RADAR DEVELOPMENT
The WW2 area looks at the development of Radar and how this
helped to win the Battle of Britain. In 1935, in what is known
as the “Daventry Experiment”, Watson-Watt demonstrated that
radio waves could be used to detect Aircraft. Following the
experiment the government funded the development of a Radar
System which could be used to defend the United Kingdom.
The system developed was the Chain Home system. In the
WW2 room we have examples of the type of RADAR which
would have been used.
The RADAR had its limitations. Firstly, being a static RADAR, it
was limited to how much area could be covered. This was
addressed by putting the RADARs close together around the
coast and also using the Royal Observer Corps to spot the
aircraft after they had flown over the coast.
Secondly the RADAR was not very accurate. This was
addressed by taking inputs from three RADARs and using a
filter table to correlate the plots.
Come on the talk a learn how the filter table worked. The Filter
board is modelled on the one at Bentley Priory.
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