In Any Weather: German Radio Navigation in Aviation and the Rise of National Socialism, 1907--1939 (2010)
Quilter, Charles John, II (Author)
University of California, Irvine
Physical Details: 391 pp.
Language: English
Wartime security, parochial thinking, technical backwardness, and triumphalist attitudes by the victorious Allies in the Second World War have tended to obscure the true origins of radio navigation in aviation. Contrary to historical facts, civilian and military radio aids to navigation since the war are widely assumed to be American or British developments. This work focuses on the three phases of development of radio navigation technology in Germany from 1907 to 1939 as a means of overcoming the problems of flying at night and in bad visibility. First is the beginning of German radio technology before the First World War and its employment during that war, which included the introduction of radio navigation for the first time. Second was tackling the problem of operating in the prevailing bad weather of Germany by the national airline, Deutsche Luft Hansa, which was largely solved by creating redundant technology and procedures that resulted in the unique capability of carrying out landings safely in conditions of zero visibility by 1935. In the third stage, the Nazi regime sought covertly to adapt and improve this technology to create various navigation systems employing beams for offensive military purposes and as a means of multiplying the effectiveness of its air force in contrast to its future enemies who did little in this regard. At the same time, Germany openly sold its leading commercial systems around the world. The author analyzes and then argues that a confluence of factors led to long-term German superiority in radio navigation including realistic assessment of problems; technically pragmatic solutions; and effective cooperation between government research institutions, manufacturers, and operators despite internal conflicts and rivalries within the Nazi polycracy. By the opening months of the Second World War, the Luftwaffe was capable of delivering weapons on designated targets sight unseen at ranges and accuracies that could not be matched by the Allies. A final chapter assesses the final trajectory of wartime German radio navigation in offensive operations against Britain and in the night air defense of the Reich while critically analyzing Allied and future postwar developments in radio navigation.
...MoreDescription Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. : doc. no. 3419921.
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