Radar

The Germans and the Japs have it too. But the U.S. Army & Navy will not permit much talk about it. They figure that, no matter what the enemy has in the way of radar (for "radio detecting and ranging"), it is not as good as the United Nations equipment. The July issue of FORTUNE, within the censorship restrictions, reports:

>The U.S., Great Britain and Germany apparently worked on the first principles of radar at about the same time. So many people now claim its discovery and development that "the postwar battle over rights will probably be an epic on a national and international scale."

> Radar proved itself in the Battle of Britain, where it was a major factor in breaking up the Luftwaffe. It detected the first flight of Jap planes approaching Pearl Harbor, but a U.S. Army officer ignored the warning ("a historic example of the closed mind in action"). Then the U.S. put most of its best physicists and the bulk of its electronics industry to work mass-producing the instrument ("one of the great postwar chapters for the U.S. electronics industry to tell").

> Radar sends out extremely short waves, invisible waves which bounce back to a receiver whenever they strike a ship or plane. Their range is about 130 miles, and they cannot be stopped by haze, fog or clouds. The returning signals can be translated into range and direction data.

> Radar is by no means perfected, but it has revolutionized war communications. It is used for picking up incoming planes, telling the pilots their positions and guiding them in. It also keeps pilots constantly informed as to their height above ground. Says FORTUNE: "It is the one big defensive weapon called forth by the overreaching airplane, and the struggle now going on in radar defensive and offensive tactics is the greatest battle of wits in this century."

> Radar is also expected to revolutionize peacetime communications and navigation, guiding planes in to fields, ships to safe harbors, motor traffic on highways, etc.

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