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Y-Gerät
The Battle of the Beams was a period early in the Second World War when bombers of the German Air Force (''Luftwaffe'') used a number of increasingly accurate systems of radio navigation for night bombing in the United Kingdom. British scientific intelligence at the Air Ministry fought back with a variety of their own increasingly effective means, involving jamming and deception signals. The period ended when the Wehrmacht moved their forces to the East in May 1941, in preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union. The idea of beam radio navigation was developed during the 1930s, initially as a blind landing aid. The basic concept is to produce two directional radio signals that are aimed slightly to the left and right of a runway's midline. Radio operators in the aircraft listen for these signals and determine which of the two beams they are flying in. This is normally accomplished by sending Morse code signals into the two beams, to identify right and left. For bombing, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Blitz
The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a contest for daylight air superiority over the United Kingdom between the and the Royal Air Force, Germany began conducting mass air attacks against British cities, beginning with London, in an attempt to draw the RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation.Price 1990, p. 12. Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring, commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 of the following 57 days and nights. Notable attacks included a large daylight attack against London on Battle of Britain Day, 15 September, a large raid on 29 December 1940 against London -- resulting in a firestorm known as the Second Great Fire of London,Hooton 1997, p. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beam Radio Navigation
Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio waves to determine a position of an object on the Earth, either the vessel or an obstruction. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination. The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially * Angular directions, e.g. by bearing, radio phases or interferometry, * Distances, e.g. ranging by measurement of time of flight between one transmitter and multiple receivers or vice versa, * Distance ''differences'' by measurement of times of arrival of signals from one transmitter to multiple receivers or vice versa * Partly also velocity, e.g. by means of radio Doppler shift. Combinations of these measurement principles also are important—e.g., many radars measure range and azimuth of a target. Bearing-measurement systems These systems used some form of directional radio antenna to determine the location of a broadcast station on the ground. Conventional navigation techniques are the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio Navigation
Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio waves to geolocalization, determine a position of an object on the Earth, either the vessel or an obstruction. Like radiolocation, it is a type of Radiodetermination-satellite service, radiodetermination. The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially * Direction (geometry), Angular directions, e.g. by bearing, radio phases or interferometry, * Distance measuring equipment, Distances, e.g. ranging by measurement of time of flight between one transmitter and multiple receivers or vice versa, * Distance ''differences'' by measurement of multilateration, times of arrival of signals from one transmitter to multiple receivers or vice versa * Partly also velocity, e.g. by means of radio Doppler shift. Combinations of these measurement principles also are important—e.g., many radars measure range and azimuth of a target. Bearing-measurement systems These systems used some form of directional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johannes Plendl
Johannes "Hans" Plendl (6 December 1900 – 10 May 1991), German radar pioneer, was the scientist whose airplane navigation inventions made possible the early German bombing successes in World War II. Early life Plendl was born in 1900 in Munich, German Empire to parents from Northern Bavaria. His surname is most likely a truncated Bavarian dialect form of "Plendlein." Plendl served in the Imperial German Navy during World War I, in the Torpedo Division stationed at Wilhelmshaven, and won the Iron Cross for bravery. Shortly thereafter, Plendl began his career as a radio and beam engineer for Telefunken corporation. His early research into meter-wave propagation and radar beams necessitated additional names for newly discovered levels of the Earth's atmosphere, and Plendl is generally credited with coining the term ionosphere. In the early 1930s, he worked on developing the radio communications used in flights by civilian aircraft and the '' Hindenburg'' Zeppelin. His research an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bomber Will Always Get Through
"The bomber will always get through" was a phrase used by Stanley Baldwin in a 1932 speech "A Fear for the Future" given to the British Parliament. His speech stated that contemporary bomber aircraft had the performance necessary to conduct a strategic bombing campaign that would destroy a country's cities and there was little that could be done in response. It concluded that the conduct of future wars would require one to "kill more women and children more quickly than the enemy if you want to save yourselves." At the time of the speech aircraft performance was rapidly improving and new techniques and construction methods were producing ever-larger aircraft. For a time, this resulted in a performance gap where multi-engine aircraft outperformed the single-engine fighter aircraft that would have to intercept them. This gap could be further widened through the use of night bombing, which made interception practically impossible. This state of affairs was relatively short-lived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interceptor Aircraft
An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are capable of being or are employed as both "standard" air superiority fighters and as interceptors are sometimes known as fighter-interceptors. In the post-World War 2 jet age, there are two general classes of interceptor: light fighters, designed for high performance over short range; and heavy fighters, which are intended to operate over longer ranges, in contested airspace and adverse meteorological conditions. While the second type was exemplified historically by specialized night fighter and all-weather interceptor designs, the integration of mid-air refueling, satellite navigation, on-board radar, and beyond visual range (BVR) missile systems since the 1960s has allowed most frontline fighter designs to fill the roles once reserve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombers
A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is done by heavy bombers primarily designed for long-range bombing missions against strategic targets to diminish the enemy's ability to wage war by limiting access to resources through crippling infrastructure, reducing industrial output, or inflicting massive civilian casualties to an extent deemed to force surrender. Tactical bombing is aimed at countering enemy military activity and in supporting offensive operations, and is typically assigned to smaller aircraft operating at shorter ranges, typically near the troops on the ground or against enemy shipping. Bombs were first dropped from an aircraft during the Italo-Turkish War, with the first major deployments coming in the First World War and Second World War by all major airforces, da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blind-landing
In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a landing, or to a point from which a landing may be made visually. These approaches are approved in the European Union by EASA and the respective country authorities, and in the United States by the FAA or the United States Department of Defense for the military. The ICAO defines an instrument approach as "a series of predetermined maneuvers by reference to flight instruments with specific protection from obstacles from the initial approach fix, or where applicable, from the beginning of a defined arrival route to a point from which a landing can be completed and thereafter, if landing is not completed, to a position at which holding or ''en route'' obstacle clearance criteria apply." There are three categories of instrument approach proced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strategic Bombing
Strategic bombing is a systematically organized and executed military attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers, long- or medium-range missiles, or nuclear-armed fighter-bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy's war-making capability. It is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the Theater (warfare)#Theater of operations, theatres of military operations, or both. The term terror bombing is used to describe the strategic bombing of civilian targets without military value, in the hope of damaging an enemy's morale. One of the strategies of war is to demoralization (warfare), demoralize the enemy so that peace or surrender becomes preferable to continuing the conflict. Strategic bombing has been used to this end. The phrase "terror bombing" entered the English lexicon towards the end of World War II and many strategic bombing cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackout (wartime)
A blackout during war, or in preparation for an expected war, is the practice of collectively minimizing outdoor light, including upwardly directed (or reflected) light. This was done in the 20th century to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to identify their targets by sight, such as during the London Blitz of 1940. In coastal regions, a shoreside blackout of city lights also helped protect ships from being seen silhouetted against the artificial light by enemy submarines further out at sea. World War I United Kingdom Plans to black out British coastal towns in the event of war were drawn up in 1913 by Winston Churchill in his role as First Lord of the Admiralty; these plans were implemented on 12 August 1914, eight days after the United Kingdom had entered the war. On 1 October 1914, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police ordered that bright exterior lights were to be extinguished or dimmed in the London area and street lamps be partially painted out with b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visual Flight Rules
In aviation, visual flight rules (VFR) is a set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. Specifically, the weather must be better than basic VFR weather minima, i.e., in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), as specified in the rules of the relevant aviation authority. The pilot must be able to operate the aircraft with visual reference to the ground, and by visually avoiding obstructions and other aircraft. If the weather is less than VMC, pilots are required to use instrument flight rules, and operation of the aircraft will be primarily through referencing the instruments rather than visual reference. In a control zone, a VFR flight may obtain a clearance from air traffic control to operate as Special VFR. Requirements VFR requires a pilot to be able to see outside the cockpit to control the aircraft's altitude, navigate, and avoid obstacles and other aircraft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
