The Birth of Radar – 1930s

Robert Watson-Watt
Supervisor
RAF Air Defence Radar Museum
Arnold F ‘Skip’ Wilkins
Assistant
RAF Air Defence Radar MuseumThe history of radar (standing for Radio Detection And Ranging) started with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects.
The Scots physicist Robert Watson-Watt, supervisor of a national radio research laboratory, was contacted and asked for his views.
Watson-Watt believed that radio beams could be bounced off enemy aircraft to detect them. He asked his assistant, Arnold F “Skip” Wilkins, to undertake calculations to demonstrate the feasibility of ‘aircraft detection by radio waves’.