Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation (FIDO) (which was sometimes referred to as "Fog Intense Dispersal Operation" or "Fog, Intense Dispersal Of") was a system used for dispersing
fog
Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...
and
pea soup fog (dense
smog
Smog, or smoke fog, is a type of intense air pollution. The word "smog" was coined in the early 20th century, and is a portmanteau of the words ''smoke'' and '' fog'' to refer to smoky fog due to its opacity, and odor. The word was then inte ...
) from an airfield so that aircraft could land safely. The device was developed by
Arthur Hartley
Arthur Clifford Hartley, CBE (7 January 1889 – 28 January 1960) was a British civil engineer. Graduating with a bachelor's degree from Imperial College London, Hartley worked for the North Eastern Railway and an asphalt manufacturer before jo ...
for
British RAF bomber stations, allowing the landing of aircraft returning from raids over
Germany in poor visibility by burning fuel in rows on either side of the runway.
The FIDO system was developed at the department of chemical engineering of the
University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, during the Second World War. The invention of FIDO is formally attributed to Dr John David Main-Smith, an ex-Birmingham resident and principal scientific officer of the Chemistry Department of the
Royal Aircraft Establishment
The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...
at
Farnborough Farnborough may refer to:
Australia
* Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone
United Kingdom
* Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England
** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...
, Hampshire, and as a courtesy the joint-patent (595,907) held by the
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...
was shared by the department head Dr Ramsbottom as was normal practice at the time. This formal government recognition is enshrined in an
Air Ministry postwar letter to the late inventor's late widow and held by his son, Bruce Main-Smith (February 2008). It also deals with the lesser role of those developing support equipment, notably the FIDO burner.
"It is my memory", writes Bruce Main-Smith, "that much of the airfield installation was pioneered at Hartford Bridge Flats airfield (aka
Blackbushe near
Yateley, Surrey ) a convenient few miles from the RAE's Farnborough aerodrome." Though J. D. Main-Smith co-owned the FIDO patent, no royalties accrued from any UK civilian usage after World War II, its being too petrol-hungry. At an attempt to quantify the saving of aircrew life, Bruce Main-Smith suggests possibly 11,000 airmen but not all would be fit to fly again.
The system
The device consisted of two pipelines situated along both sides of the runway and through which a fuel (usually the
petrol from the airfield's own fuel dump) was pumped along and then out through burner jets positioned at intervals along the pipelines. The vapours were lit from a series of burners, producing walls of flame. The FIDO installation usually stored its fuel in four circular upright tanks built at the edge of the airfield with a low brick bund wall in case of leakage. The tanks were usually encased in ordinary brickwork as protection from bomb splinters or cannon fire.
When fog prevented returning Allied aircraft from locating and seeing their runways to land, they would be diverted to FIDO equipped aerodromes. RAF night bombers which were damaged on their missions were also diverted to FIDO airfields due to the need to make certain they could land when they arrived. When FIDO was needed, the fuel pumps were started to pour flammable liquid into the pipe system and a Jeep with a flaming brand lashed to its rear drove fast down both sides of the runway to ignite the fuel at the outlets in the pipes. The burners were sometimes ignited by men on bicycles or by runners on foot. The result was a row of flame along the side of the runway that would warm the air. The heat from the flames evaporated suspended fog droplets so that there would be a clearing in the fog directly over the runway. This allowed the pilot to see the ground as he attempted to put his aircraft down. Once landed, the planes would be moved off and dispersed to
hard stands. The next day the planes would be repaired if needed, refueled and flown back to their home base.
The procedure for aircrew before the introduction of FIDO
Before the introduction of FIDO, fog had been responsible for losses of a number of aircraft returning from operations. Often large areas of the
UK would be simultaneously fog-bound and it was recommended procedure in these situations for the pilot to point the aircraft towards the sea and then, while still over land, for the crew to bail-out by parachute, leaving the aircraft to subsequently crash in the sea. With raids often consisting of several hundred aircraft, this could amount to a large loss of bombers.
Testing of FIDO
An experimental FIDO system was first tested at Moody Down, Hampshire, on 4 November 1942 and 200 yards of dense fog was successfully cleared to a height of 80 feet. The first full scale FIDO system was installed in January 1943 and an aircraft reportedly piloted by
Air Vice Marshall D. C. T. Bennet successfully landed between the flames, although not in fog conditions.
The first successful flights in fog occurred on 17 July 1943 when an
Airspeed Oxford of RAF
No 35 Squadron piloted by Flying Officer (later Flight Lieutenant) Edward Noel Holding (
RNZAF Number 402185) carried out three approaches and departures in dense fog with Group Captain
Basil Robinson. Robinson was killed on operations a month later. Holding survived the war and died in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2008.
The use of FIDO
FIDO used huge quantities of fuel, as much as per hour. Over twice this amount was used by airfields with longer runways such as
RAF Carnaby. Large fuel storage tanks filled with low-grade petrol and possibly kerosene and other fuel were connected by pumps to provide this fuel to the runway pipes. Although extravagant in the use of fuel consumed, it was felt that the device more than made up for the operating costs involved with the reduction of aircraft losses.
FIDO systems were used at many RAF stations in England during
World War II.
RAF fields equipped with FIDO:
*
RAF Blackbushe/Hartford Bridge
*
RAF Bradwell Bay
*
RAF Carnaby – Emergency Landing Ground
*
RAF Downham Market, Norfolk
*
RAF Fiskerton
*
RAF Foulsham
*
RAF Graveley
*
RAF Ludford Magna
Royal Air Force Ludford Magna or more simply RAF Ludford Magna is a former Royal Air Force station located on agricultural farmland immediately south of the village of Ludford, Lincolnshire and was sited 21. 4miles (34.4 km) north east of ...
*
RAF Manston – Emergency Landing Ground
*
RAF Melbourne
*
RAF Metheringham
Royal Air Force Metheringham or more simply RAF Metheringham is a former Royal Air Force station situated between the villages of Metheringham and Martin, North Kesteven, Martin and south east of the county town Lincoln, England, Lincoln, Lincol ...
*
RAF St Eval
*
RAF Sturgate
*
RAF Tuddenham
Royal Air Force Station Tuddenham or RAF Tuddenham is a former Royal Air Force station located south east of Mildenhall, Suffolk, England and north west of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Station history
* No. 3 Lancaster Finishing School.
* No. ...
*
RAF Woodbridge – Emergency Landing Ground
*
Épinoy
The last FIDO-equipped airfield at which a system was maintained was RAF Manston, the system being available for emergency use as late as 1952. Due to the high costs involved, use had to be reported to the Air Minister.
Initial installation of FIDO was designed and constructed along Runway 1 at
London Heathrow Airport but the pipes and other fittings were never installed.
FIDO was also installed at North American airfields including
Arcata, California,
Eareckson Air Station,
Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, at the
World War II Amchitka Army Airfield
Amchitka (; ale, Amchixtax̂; russian: Амчитка) is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited
island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refu ...
on
Amchitka
Amchitka (; ale, Amchixtax̂; russian: Амчитка) is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited
island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refu ...
Island in the
Aleutians.
[Williams (1995) pp. 216–224]
Notes
References
*
*
*
FIDOBiography of Reg Miles, RAF Flight Engineer, 432 and 420 Squadrons RCAF, Bomber Command, Justin Museum of Military History.
*A description of FIDO is given in
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
's only non-science-fiction novel ''
Glide Path'' (1963), about the development of
Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) in World War II.
Bibliography
*Geoffrey Williams: ''FLYING THROUGH FIRE. FIDO – The Fogbuster of World War II'' (Grange Books, London, UK, 1996, ).
External links
Now It Can Be Told! – 'Operation Fido': Beating Airfield Fog ''
The War Illustrated'', 6 July 1945. thewarillustrated.info
A Lancaster bomber using Fido showing the flames burning alongside the runway*
*
– a 1952
''Flight'' article on post-war FIDO operations
*
* – detailed description with long explanatory inter-titles
* – FIDO at Arcato airfield in the United States of America
* – experiments with FIDO for civilian use
* – a FIDO patent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fog Investigation And Dispersal Operation (Fido)
Fog
Smog
Air pollution in the United Kingdom
World War II military equipment of the United Kingdom
Aerial warfare
British inventions