Echoing Across

the Years
i
n this article, we provide a brief history of
Tapan K. Sarkar, the evolution of radar across the various re­
Magdalena Salazar Palma, gions where the technology’s development
occurred, often simultaneously and indepen­
and Eric L. Mokole dently. (Note that the original term RADAR,
representing “RAdio Detection And Ranging,” was

Tapan K. Sarkar (tksarkar@syr.edu) is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse University, New York,
United States. Magdalena Salazar Palma (Salazar@tsc.uc3M.es) is with the Departmento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones, University
Carlos III, Madrid, Spain. Eric L. Mokole (eric.mokole@outlook.com) is a private consultant in Burke, Virginia, United States.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2016.2589200

Date of publication: 8 September 2016

46 1527-3342/16©2016IEEE October 2016


©istockphoto.com/retroimages
devised by the U.S. Navy in 1940.) We cover in detail
the years from the late 19th century, when initial ex­
periments were undertaken, through the early 1940s,
when many countries sought (often in secrecy) to
develop radar during World War II. We then show
how the introduction of the resonant cavity magne­
tron proved a turning point in radar history and end
with a short survey of the magnetron’s evolution for
multiple radar applications.
Early Developments of Radar
Any history of radar generally starts with work
carried out by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th cen­
tury that provided experimental verification of
James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism
and demonstrated that radio waves were, indeed,
reflected by metallic objects. As Hertz was conduct­
ing experiments using these waves, he noticed that
surrounding objects interfered them. At the turn
of the 20th century, the phenomena of such inter­
ference were widely known among scientists, who
were theorizing about how to use this interference
in practice.
October 2016 47
In 1900, Nikola Tesla suggested a wireless system
that could use reflected radio waves to locate objects
and even to measure their distance. Tesla explained
the concept of radar (as we know the term) thusly:
When we raise the voice and hear an echo in re­
ply, we know that the sound of the voice must
have reached a distant wall or boundary, and
must have been reflected from the same. Exactly
as the sound, so an electrical wave is reflected,
and the same evidence can be used to determine
the relative position or course of a moving ob­
ject such as a vessel at sea.
Unfortunately, Tesla’s dream was not realized for vari­
ous reasons; his ideas were forgotten, only to be redis­
covered time and time again in years to come.
In the early 20th century, German inventor Chris­
tian Hülsmeyer first used radio waves to detect dis­
tant metallic objects with a transmitter and a receiver
[1]–[5]. He filed a patent application on 21 November
1903 for a simple ship detection device intended to
help avoid collisions in fog, calling the system Telemob-
iloskop (telemobiloscope). When Hülsmeyer advertised
for a financial backer, Henry Mannheim, a Cologne
leather merchant, responded and in March 1904 in­­
vested in Hülsmeyer’s venture. The firm Telemobilos­
kop–Gesellschaft Hülsmeyer & Mannheim opened
the following May, officially registered in Cologne.
Hülsmeyer’s initial patent application for the tele­
mobiloscope was rejected, but a refiling dated 30 April
1904 was accepted, resulting in Patent Publication DE
165546; the basic patent description was as follows
(translated from the original German): “Hertzian-
wave Projecting and Receiving Apparatus Adapted to
Indicate or Give Warning of the Presence of a Metallic
Body, such as Ships or Trains, in the Line of Projecting
of such Waves.”
The first public demonstration of the telemobilo­
scope took place in the courtyard of Cologne’s Domho­
tel on 17 May 1904. The metal gate to the courtyard was
the target, and the transmission path was through a
curtain—showing that the apparatus could work even
when the target was not visible. Newspapers reported
the demonstration widely. Coincidentally, a confer­
ence was being held in June 1904 at Scheveningen, The
Netherlands, involving the major shipping firms of the
region, with ship safety as a major topic. After learn­
ing of the demonstration at the Dom Hotel, the head
of the Holland-Amerika Lijn invited principals of Tele­
mobiloskop-Gesellschaft to provide a demonstration
of their apparatus during the conference. This demon­
stration took place on 9 June during a tour through the
Rotterdam harbor aboard the ship tender Columbus.
The telemobiloscope was primarily a spark-gap
transmitter, connected to an array of dipole antennas,
 (a) (b)

Figure 1. The earliest version of radar: (a) the telemobiloscope invented by (b) Christian Hülsmeyer. [Photo (a) courtesy of the
Deutsches Museum; http://www.deutsches-museum.de/ausstellungen/verkehr/schifffahrt/marinetechnik; photo (b) is in the
public domain.]

and a coherer receiver, with a cylindrical parabolic
antenna that could rotate 360° (Figure 1). While the
transmitted signal achieved broad coverage, the receiv­
ing antenna was narrowly focused. When a reflected
signal reached the receiver, a relay was actuated that, in
turn, rang an electric bell. The system included a mech­
anism that synchronized the aiming direction of the
receiving antenna with a compass-like indicator; it also
included a means of rejecting false signals.
Although the telemobiloscope could not directly
indicate range, a separate patent (DE 169154) granted on
2 April 1906 showed a method for using two vertical
measurements and trigonometry to calculate approxi­
mate range. Perhaps the most ingenious part of this equip­
ment was a safeguard feature that blanked during its own
transmission by a time-limiting electromechanical device.
The receiver responded to a first transmission signal
only if, after a predetermined interval, it received the
signal from the second transmission [1].
The next person worth noting from the early days of
radar development [1] is Hugo Gernsback (Figure 2), a
Luxembourg author (whose U.S. publisher launched the
first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in April
1926). Gernsback himself published the 1911 novel Ralph
124C 41+, the title being a pun on the phrase “one to
foresee for many”(“one plus”). In this, one of the most
influential science fiction stories of all time, the narrator
describes the detection of reflected waves from an object
to gauge its distance by determining the waves’ intensity
and elapsed time.
In 1910, Hans Dominik [1], ano­ ther science fiction
writer of German origin who was also an engineer (Fig­
ure 3), built a machine to detect enemy targets in dark­
ness. This device operated at 10-cm wavelength and
employed a spark discharger. However, Dominik’s efforts
ended with the start of World War I.
In 1917 in the August edition of Electrical Experi-
menter, Nikola Tesla (Figure 4) gave an account edited
by Hugo Gernsback, of detecting submarines using
a radar-type device [1]. However, no statements were
made about the high loss encountered by the radio
waves when propagating in water.

Figure 2. Hugo Gernsback. (Photo in Figure 3. Hans Dominik. (Photo in Figure 4. Nikola Tesla. (Photo in the
the public domain.) the public domain.) public domain.)

48 October 2016
 On 22 June 1922 in New York City, Gugliemo Marconi
(Figure 5) addressed the American Institute of Electri­
cal Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers (the
predecessors of the IEEE). At the end of his remarks,
Marconi proposed a possible application of radio waves
in navigation. He suggested that, by receiving reflected
rays from ships, it might be possible to issue warnings
of the presence and bearing of such ships even though
they themselves had no radio equipment.
In September 1922, Dr. Albert Hoyt Taylor and his
assistant Leo Clifford Young (Figure 6) were carrying out
very-high-frequency (VHF) propagation experiments (at
60 MHz) at the U. S. Naval Aircraft Laboratory in Ana­
costia, Washington, D.C. They used a 50-W transmit­
ter amplitude modulated at 500 Hz. Taylor and Young
observed reflections from steel buildings. When they Figure 5. Gugliemo Marconi. (Photo in the public domain.)
placed the receiver in a car and drove the car around the
area, they also observed reflections from trees and other
objects, including a wooden boat that pa­­ssed them. Taylor
then suggested that at this frequency, radio waves could be
used for radio detection of ships irrespective of fog, dark­
ness, or smoke screen.
Precursors to radar development during the 1920s
include electromagnetic-distance-measuring techniques,
which were being worked on independently without
any thought of their potential use for detecting long-dis­
tance targets. Rather, these techniques were being used
for ionospheric sounding and determining the effects
of the ionosphere on high-frequency (HF) propagation.
Additionally, frequency-modulated continuous-wave
(FM-CW) altimeters were being developed for installa­
tion on aircraft.
Figure 6. Albert H. Hoyt (left) and Leo C. Young
Around 1930, the development of radar was initi­
(right). (Photo courtesy of RadioCafe.com; http://www.
ated independently in many countries simultaneously, rfcafe.com/references/radio-news/images/radar-silent-
all under the veil of secrecy, as we discuss in the fol­ weapon-wwii-october-1945-radio-news-20.jpg.)
lowing section.

Development of Radar Around the World
Radar Development in Germany
After the initial work of Hülsmeyer, the German
Luftwaffe (the aerial warfare branch of the country’s
defense force) seemed to have no real interest in devel­
oping a radio-ranging device other than one to guide
bombers to their targets [1]–6]. The focus in Germany
was on devising offensive systems; it was only threat­
ened nations such as Great Britain that felt an overrid­
ing need to counter the air threat.
The British Navy, on the other hand, was clearly
superior to the Germany’s, causing Germany to search
for technological solutions to blunt British naval supe­
riority and prevent naval attacks. It should be no sur­
prise, then, that the German Navy developed several
of the best pre-World War II radar systems.
Dr. Rudolph Kühnold, head of the German Navy’s
signals research program, rediscovered German radar
in 1933. He was working on ways to detect underwater
objects by bouncing sound waves off such objects
(called sonar). It occurred to him that the same prin­
ciples could be applied to radio waves above the water.
Twenty-nine years after Hülsmeyer’s experiments with
radar, Kühnold (unaware of Hülsmeyer’s work) recre­
ated his effort. In January 1934, the Gema company
(Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische und Mechanische
Apparate) began development of this experimental
radar, which was demonstrated on 20 March in Kiel
harbor. Later that year, Kühnold successfully demon­
strated his apparatus to naval officials, spotting ships
over 7 mi away and, by chance, also a seaplane moving
in front of the radar. The naval officials were impressed
and granted development funds to the Gema company.
Kühnold improved his experimental radar with pulsed
transmissions to measure target ran­­­ges and higher
frequencies for increased resolution, resulting in a
usable prototype for the navy. In September 1935, Ad­
miral Raeder, the German Navy’s commander-in-chief,
observed demonstrations of the radar’s ability to spot,

October 2016 49
 From here, the Gema company improved the pro­
totype by altering the frequency to 600 MHz and
6.2 m
5.0 m higher, which extended its range and accuracy. These
IFF improvements gave the new radar the ability to spot
aircraft as well as ships. This system would become
1.0 m the most important German early-warning radar at the
Eiving end of 1936, demonstrating an aircraft detection range
of 50 mi and garnering orders from both the Luftwaffe
2.4 m and the German Navy. This radar, named Freya (after
the Norse goddess of love and war), was delivered to
the German Navy in 1938 (Figure 7).
Transmitting Using a 50-cm (600-MHz) magnetron from Philips,
2.4 m the first transmitter was modulated with 2-μs pulses at
a pulse repetition frequency of 2,000 Hz. The transmit­
ting antenna was an array of ten pairs of dipoles with
Transmitter a reflecting mesh, and the receiving antenna had three
pairs of dipoles and incorporated lobe switching. The
wide-band regenerative receiver used an RCA 955 acorn
triode. A blocking device (a duplexer) shut the receiver
input when the transmitter pulsed. For displaying the
range, it had a Braun tube (a cathode-ray tube), which
had been improved in the late 1920s by Manfred von
Ardenne. The equipment was placed atop a tower at a
Figure 7. A rendering of the German Freya radar. (Image Nachrichtenmittel-Versuchsanstalt (naval transmissions
reprinted from TME 11-219, Directory of German Radar laboratory) test facility on the shores of Lubecker Bay
Equipment; in the public domain under the terms of near Pelzerhaken. This pulse-modulated system first
Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code.) detected returns from woods across the bay at a range
of 15 km in May 1935, but it had limited success detect­
ing a ship only a short distance out on the bay. The
receiver was rebuilt to be a superheterodyne set, and
10.75 M the system then tracked vessels at up to an 8-km range
[also detecting returns from woods across the bay at
a range of 15 km (9.3 mi)]. In Germany, Kühnhold is
often called the “father of radar.”
Freya had excelled in the unexpected area of air­
craft detection, but the navy was more interested in
creating highly accurate gun ranging for its ships.
10.4 M
It is important to note that the Freya radar was more
advanced than its British counterpart, discussed more
extensively in the section “Radar Development in Great
Britain.” Freya operated on a 1.2-m (3.9-ft) wavelength
(250 MHz), while the British radar used 12 m. This per­
mitted Freya to employ a much smaller antenna sys­
tem that was easier to rotate, move, and position. It also
offered higher resolution, allowing it to detect smaller
targets. Because of its complex design, however, only
eight Freya stations were operational at the start of
World War II, resulting in large gaps between the cov­
ered areas. The British radar, although less advanced
Figure 8. A rendering of the German Seetakt radar. (Image and more prone to errors, was simpler, which meant
reprinted from TME 11-219, Directory of German Radar that a complete network was in place in time for the
Equipment; in the public domain under the terms of Title Battle of Britain in mid-1940s.
17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the U.S. Code.) Gema was also able to build a higher-frequency
(375-MHz) short-range (up to 9 mi) gun-ranging radar.
from a fixed shore location, ships at a range of 12 mi and This ship-borne Seetakt radar (Figure 8) was undergoing
also to detect ships from a moving ship-borne location ship trials in 1937 and was used by the German Navy on
at a range of 5 mi. the battleship Graf Spee in 1938 during its intervention

50 October 2016
in the Spanish Civil War. The two systems were
generally similar, although the early Seetakt sys­
tems worked on a 50-cm wavelength (600 MHz),
while Freya was designed for much longer ranges
and used a 2.5-m wavelength that could be gener­
ated at high power with existing electronics (and
without magnetrons). The device was worked on
further based on Dr. Hans E. Hollmann’s doctoral
research of 1928 and included the development of
an ultrashort-wave transmitter and receiver for
centimeter and decimeter waves. This gained the
attention of Telefunken and ultimately led to their
development of the first microwave telecommuni­
cation system.
Hans-Karl von Willsen worked with Hollmann
and a third scientist, Gunther Erbsloeh, to perfect
a device that could detect ships around 8 km away Figure 9. The German Würzburg radar. (Photo reproduced under
and aircraft flying at a height of 500 m about 30 km Creative Commons license; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
away. (The marine system was also called Seetakt File:W%C3%BCrzburg-Riese_at_Gatow.JPG.)
and the terrestrial system Freya.) These men could
be said to have created the application we most com­ reflector supplied by the Zeppelin Company and was
monly associate with radar—detecting and assessing effective at a range of about 40 km for aircraft.
the distance of objects. In developing naval surface radar, German indus­
Telefunken, which had been uninterested in the try had unwittingly discovered the makings of mod­
pursuit of radar in early 1930s, became interested ern air-defense systems. There is no real evidence
when the upstart Gema company landed substantial that the Luftwaffe ever pursued radar as a needed
military contracts. Telefunken entered into the radar defensive device, but, once such a radar was demon­
field in 1936 and was able to develop a small, highly strated, the Luftwaffe purchased the units, appar­
mobile radar set with the ability to plot aircraft with ently without giving much thought to command and
high levels of accuracy up to ranges of 25 mi. This ra­ control issues. In combination, the Freya and Würz­
dar, named Würzburg (Figure 9), was produced in 1938 burg radars were especially powerful. Freya could
using 560  MHz, an extremely high frequency for the be used in the classic role of a ground-based search
time. This radar was accurate enough to meet the needs radar giving long-range early warning, and Würz­
of antiaircraft gunners and allowed ground-directed burg could act as the acquisition radar for defensive
aircraft intercept missions at night. The radar used a weapons systems in applications such as a search­
new triode capable of delivering 10-kW pulse power light, an antiaircraft battery, or for the vectoring of
at 60 cm (500 MHz). It also had a 3-m (10-ft) parabolic fighter aircraft.

Figure 12. Harry Egerton Wimperis.

Figure 10. Sir Robert Watson-Watt. Figure 11. Arnold F. Wilkins. (Photo (Photo courtesy of the National
(Photo in the public domain.) in the public domain.) Portrait Gallery, London.)

October 2016 51
 Radar Development
in Great Britain
In 1935 in England, four individuals—
Sir Robert Watson-Watt (Figure 10),
Arnold F. Wilkins (Figure 11), and
Harry Eagerton Wimperis (Figure 12),
along with Sir Henry Tizard (Fig­
ure 13)—contributed to developing
a radar system termed Chain Home
(CH). (Note that “Chain Home” was
the code name for the ring of coastal
early warning radar stations built by
the British before and during World
War II to detect and track aircraft.
The term also referred to the radars
themselves until they were given the
official name AMES Type 1 in 1940.)
Figure 13. Sir Henry Tizard. (Photo
In 1937, a prototype was built at the
in the public domain.)
Bawdsey Research Station (Figure 14)
and handed over to the Royal Air Force.
This CH station operated at a frequency of 22 MHz
(13.6-m wavelength), and aircraft at 3,000 m (10,000 ft)
and as far out as 150 km (80 mi) could be spotted in good
weather. In rain, the range was reduced to roughly
one-half or more, as it depended on the target altitude.
By September 1939 at the outbreak of the war, 20 CH
stations were operational. Because of the low operating
frequency (in the radio range), it has often been ques­
tioned whether the CH was really a radar set or simply
Figure 14. The British Chain Home (CH) radar. Three of the
four transmitter masts of the Bawdsey CH station, as seen
in 1945; the antennas proper are just visible at the extreme
right. (Photo courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.)
52 October 2016
a range-and-direction-finding system
(more commonly known as RDF).
Later, frequencies of 22–55 MHz
were used to avoid interference bet­­­­­
ween adjacent towers, noise, or jam­
ming. Although the CH had an
elevation limit of 1.5–16° and could
not detect low-flying aircraft, the sys­
tem worked and was used during the
Battle of Britain.
Further work in 1937 led to
“beamed” radar for airborne sets and
for coastal defense (CD) radar that op­
erated on a 1.5-m wavelength. The CD
system, also called CH Low (CHL), used
an antenna that rotated at 1–2.3 r/m and
had a range of 160 km with an azimuth
accuracy of 1.5°, as well as a pulse-posi­
tion indicator display. Unfortunately, the
target height could not be determined. By
1941, 11 CHLs were operational. The use of the higher
frequency made the radar less dependent on weather.
CH was as a significant development in the use of
radar. The fact that the systems were able to produce short
pulses of radio energy was a key advance, which led to
modern radar systems. Timing the pulses on an oscil­
loscope allowed the range to be determined, and the
direction of the antenna revealed the angular location of
the targets. Combined, the two produced a “fix,” locating
the target relative to the antenna.
Radar Development in the United States
In the autumn of 1922, Albert H. Taylor and Leo C.
Young at the U.S. Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory
were conducting communication experiments when
they noticed that a wooden ship in the Potomac River
was interfering with their signals. They prepared a
memorandum suggesting that this might be used for
ship detection in a harbor defense, but their suggestion
was not further studied.
In 1930, Lawrence A. Hyland [Figure 15(a)]—work­
ing with Taylor and Young, now at the U.S. Naval
Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C.—
employed a similar arrangement of radio equipment to
detect a passing aircraft. This led to a proposal and pat­
ent for using this technique to detect ships and aircraft.
A simple wave-interference apparatus could detect the
presence of an object, but it could not determine its
location or velocity. That had to await the invention of
pulsed radar and later additional encoding techniques
to extract this information from a CW signal.
When Taylor’s group at the NRL was unsuccessful
in getting radio interference (which implicitly used a
CW radar) accepted as a detection means, Young sug­
gested trying pulsing techniques, which would also
allow the direct determination of the range to the
target. In 1924, Hyland and Young had built such a
 (a) (b) (c) (d)

Figure 15. (a) Lawrence A. Hyland, (b) Gregory Breit, (c) Merle A. Tuve, and (d) Robert Morris Page. [Photos (a), (b), and (d)
are in the public domain. Photo (c) reproduced courtesy of Time, Inc.]

transmitter for Gregory Breit and Merle A. Tuve [Fig­

ure 15(b) and (c)] at Washington’s Carnegie Institution
to successfully measure the height of the ionosphere.
Robert Morris Page [Figure 15(d)] was assigned by Tay­
lor to implement Young’s suggestion. Page designed a
transmitter operating at 60 MHz with 10-μs pulses and
90 μs between pulses. In December 1934, the apparatus
was used to detect a plane at a distance of 1 mi (1.6 km)
flying up and down the Potomac. Although the detection
range was small and the indications on the oscilloscope
monitor were almost indistinct, the apparatus demon­
strated the basic concept of a pulsed radar system.
Based on this, Page, Taylor, and Young are generally
credited with building and demonstrating the world’s
first true radar. An important subsequent development
by Page was the duplexer, a device that allowed the
transmitter and receiver to use the same antenna with­
out overwhelming or destroying the sensitive receiver
circuitry. This also solved problems associated with the
synchronization of separate transmitter and receiver
antennas, which is critical to the accurate position
determination of long-range targets.
Page also invented the monopulse tracking radar, Figure 16. The NRL’s XAF radar installed on the
which is still the preferred approach for precision track­ battleship U.S.S. New York in 1938. (Photo courtesy of the
ing radars and for military applications. In addition, he U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.)
obtained the patent on the widely used plan position
indicator radar display, which provides the location and officials, successfully tracking an aircraft at distances
direction of a target on a map-like presentation that is up to 25 mi (40 km). This radar was based on low-fre­
easy to interpret. Page conceived and initiated the first quency signals, at least by today’s standards, and thus
successful demonstration of HF over-the-horizon radar, required large antennas, making it impractical for ship
whose propagating waves are refracted by the Earth’s or aircraft mounting. The XAF—an experimental radar
ionosphere. The detection of ships, aircraft, and ballis­ set first built by the NRL, including the duplexer—was
tic missiles was thereby extended out to about 2,000 mi constructed in 1938 and installed on the U.S.S. New
(3,200 km), approximately ten times the range of micro­ York (Figure 16). It operated at 200 MHz with a power of
wave radars, which are limited to the line of sight by 15 kW. The XAF featured a “bedspring”-like antenna
the horizon. about 17 ft2. The XAF’s transmitter, receiver, and other
Experiments with pulsed radar continued, primar­ equipment were fabricated by the NRL (Figure 17). The
ily to improve the receiver for handling short pulses. In radar detected aircraft up to 100 nautical mi (nmi) away
June 1936, the NRL’s first prototype radar system, now and ships out to 15 nmi. The radar was also employed for
operating at 28.6 MHz, was demonstrated to government navigation and in gunnery practice, giving very accurate

October 2016 53

Figure 17. The XAF transceiver, circa 1938. (Photo
courtesy of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.)
range and azimuth direction and allowing for accurate
targeting of enemy vessels and detection of nearby land
or obstructions even at night or in fog.
A major milestone of radar research in the United
States was the establishment of the Radiation Laboratory at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), tasked
with carrying out microwave research from October
1940 through 31 December 1945. During its five-year
existence, the Radiation Laboratory made significant
contributions to the development of microwave radar
technology in support of the war effort. Inventions
included airborne bombing radars, shipboard search
radars, harbor and coastal defense radars, gun-laying
radars, ground-controlled approach radars for aircraft
blind landing, interrogate-friend-or-foe beacon systems,
and the long-range navigation (LORAN) system. Some
of the most critical contributions of the Radiation Labo­
ratory were microwave early-warning (or “MEW”) ra­
dars, which effectively nullified the German V-1 bomber
threat to London, and air-to-surface vessel (or “ASV”)
radars, which turned the tide on the German U-boat
threat to Allied shipping. [In addition, much of the Tiz­
ard mission, which led to the rapid development of the
magnetron and its related components (as described in
the section “The Saga of the Magnetron That Changed
History”), took place at MIT’s Radiation Laboratory.]
Radar Development in France
Radar-type systems were also developed in France early
in the 20th century, and some key components of the
magnetron made in France contributed to the British
54 October 2016
effort in World War II. As noted by Capt. J. Bion [7], in 1923
radio amateur M. Brard—after reading articles in the
journal l’Antenne and the work of Prof. Paul Langevine,
who had experimented with ultrasonics and underwa­
ter detection during World War I [1]—connected a 10-W
transmitter to a rotating antenna to radiate toward a ver­
tical antenna located 10 m away. The received signal was
picked up by a receiver, which occurred when the trans­
mitted beam illuminated this vertical antenna.
Two years later in 1925, Pierre David proposed that
aircraft could be detected by identifying the radiation
generated by their alternators, which used permanent
magnets to produce alternating currents. This idea
had been tried by Maj. E.H. Armstrong of the U.S. Sig­
nal Corps during World War I.
In 1927, Camille Gutton and Emile Pierre at the Uni­
versity of Nancy used a retarding field generator (a tri­
ode in which the grid has a high positive voltage and
the anode has a slightly negative voltage) to generate
wavelengths of 16 cm for detecting nearby objects. In
1928, Pierre David submitted a document outlining the
detection of aircraft by identifying the reflected radi­
ated beam of high-frequency radio waves. In 1932, the
Societé Francaise Radioelectrique (SFR) used a split-anode
magnetron, which delivered several watts of continuous
power at 70 cm to the transmitter. In 1933, David set up a
transmitter that delivered 50 W, and a super-generative
receiver located at a separation distance of 5 km was able
to detect aircraft up to a height of 5,000 m at an operat­
ing frequency of 75 MHz. In the years following, others
experimented with magnetrons for maritime detection.
From 1934 onwards, it may be said that two different
modes of the French radar system evolved: one associ­
ated with the military championed by Pierre David and
the other a commercial system involving the SFR under
Maurice Ponte (Figure 18). The David system advocated
the use of pulses to create a CW beat-frequency method,
while Ponte initially experimented with CWs but then
switched to pulses.
In 1935, several of these systems were built for
detecting mobile objects using a wavelength of 4–6 m,
with power of several kilowatts, usable ranges out to
100 km, and determination of target coordinates in
three dimensions. They were also installed on commer­
cial vessels, primarily as an onboard obstacle detector.
In 1939, the Societé Anonyme des Industries Radio­
electroniques combined the lower frequencies of the
David system and the pulse method of the Ponte system
to produce a naval radar operating first at 50 MHz and
then at 150 MHz, with approximately 20-kW peak power
output. These were set up to protect French ports and cit­
ies. Just prior to and after the onset of World War II, there
were some formal exchanges of information between
France and Great Britain attended by both scientists and
military personnel, including Sir Robert Watson-Watt.
In April 1940, the SFR succeeded in constructing a
magnetron with an oxide-coated cathode that delivered
Figure 18. Maurice Ponte. (Photo in Figure 19. Ugo Tiberio. (Photo in the
the public domain; http://www.radar- public domain; http://www.cep.cnr.it/
france.fr/Maurice%20Ponte.htm.) storia03.html.)
a peak power of 500 W. Ponte carried one of these mag­
netrons to Great Britain on 9 May 1940 [1]. The SFR
continued working on magnetrons after the fall of
France in June 1940 and during the German occupation
until the technology was capable of delivering a peak
power output of 4 kW. After January 1941, these radars
were installed on German battleships; they operated
at approximately 50-cm wavelength, with peak pulse
power of approximately 50 kW, and were capable of a
useful range of 150 km. Most of this radar equipment
was destroyed with the November 1942 Allied invasion
of Toulon.
Radar Development in Italy
Marconi installed radio telephone links using a fre­
quency of 30 MHz covering a distance of 170 mi
throughout Italy. In 1934, he suggested the use of a
bistatic CW apparatus with the goal of developing a
monostatic pulse system. In 1934, he developed meth­
ods of detecting obstacles using two parabolic reflector
antennas. After witnessing Marconi’s demonstrations
in 1935, Italian leader Benito Mussolini and his mili­
tary personnel—among whom was General Professor
Luigi Sacco (his title in Italian was Direttore del Reparto
Studi Generale)—spearheaded the development of radar
in Italy.
Sacco had worked in direction-finding and antenna
design and propagation, and he thought radio detec­
tion of objects was possible. He hired a young radio
scientist, Prof. Ugo Tiberio (Figure 19) from the Istituto
Radio dell’Esercito a Roma, to develop methods for
detecting objects using high-frequency techniques.
Between 1939 and 1941, Sacco and Tiberio built two
pulse radars that had a range of 12 km for ships and
30 km for aircraft. After suffering heavy losses at the
hands of the British in 1941, the Italians started install­
ing radars on battleships.
October 2016 55
Figure 20. Kinjiro Okabe. (Photo in
the public domain; http://www.civic.
ninohe.iwate.jp/100W/09/087.)
However, apart from the dedicated work of a few
able scientists and engineers, the Italian wartime radar
program seems to have been too little, too late [1].
Radar Development in Japan
Starting in 1909, the Japanese Navy carried out research us­
ing Bellini–Tosi direction finders. From 1926 onward, radio
direction finders were used at the Electro-Technical Labo­
ratory of the Ministry of Communication for the study of
HF propagation. In 1945, Yoshihiro Asami of Hokkaido
Imperial University carried out research on slot antennas.
Prof. Kinjiro Okabe (Figure 20) is well known for his
work on the magnetron beginning in 1920. He developed
CW magnetrons operating at 10 cm and in 1941 developed
a pulsed system. In 1942, these were deployed on ships
with a peak power output of 22 kW operating at 3 cm.
In 1937, the Japanese Navy experimented with
FM-CW radar having ranges of up to 5 km. A 10-cm
airborne search radar providing 6-kW peak power
with a maximum range of 20 km was delivered to the
Germans. Beginning in 1941, both the Japanese Army
and Navy started serious radar work—the navy oper­
ating pulse radars and the army using CW or Dop­
pler systems. The first army pulse radar set operated
from 68 to 80 MHz with a peak power of 10–50 kW.
Ranges of 300 km were obtained, and the targets were
displayed on an A-scope (which shows only the range
and the relative strength of the echo, not the direc­
tion to the target; such a display is normally used in
weapons-control radar systems). Range accuracy was
±7 km, and the azimuth accuracy was ±5°.
By the end of 1945, the Japanese had land-based,
ship-borne, and airborne radars as well as radar-
countermeasure equipment with both search receiv­
ers and jamming transmitters. They also developed
FM altimeters and a hyperbolic navigation system
similar to LORAN.
 Radar Development
in the U.S.S.R.
In 1932, Prof. V.L. Granovskii with
Moscow’s All-Union Elecktro Techni­
cal Institute was developing an infra­
red detector for use against aircraft.
However, the presence of clouds inter­
fered with the system and so work was
started using radio waves. In 1934,
the Leningrad Electrophysics Institute
(LEFI) developed a bistatic CW system.
The transmitter radiated 150–200 W on
a wavelength of 4.7 m, and the carrier
frequency was modulated at 1,000 Hz.
The receiver was a super-regenerative
(i.e., including an amplifier with posi­
tive feedback), superhetrodyne (i.e.,
Figure 21. J.L.W.C. von Weiler. (Photo STRELETS. Ultimately, work was
using mixing to generate an intermedi­
courtesy of the Museum Waalsdorp;
ate frequency) receiver connected to
http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/
a small horizontal dipole, which was gesch_meetgbnl.html.)
mounted on a handheld vertical rod
and rotated. Aircraft could be detected
up to a height of 1,000 m and within a 3-km radius. The
range of the equipment was 75 km.
In 1935, LEFI was absorbed into the Television Insti­
tute and renamed NII-9 (Scientific Research Institute
No. 9); researchers there built a search-and-tracking
radar named BURYA (“storm” in English), operating at
18 cm. The BURYA system had two parabolic anten­
nas (one for transmission and the other for reception),
operated with a continuous power output of 6–7 W
with a 3–4° accuracy, and was capable of detecting air­
craft at a range of 10–11 km.
In 1936, NII-9 researchers built a pulse radar
operating at 4 m that was capable of detecting air­
craft flying at an altitude of 1,500 m at a range of
17 km. Eventually, the system was perfected to detect
aircraft at a range of 150 km. They also successfully
worked on using a single antenna for transmission
and reception, which resulted in an improved bear­
ing resolution.
Afterward, radar research was delegated to the
Ukranian Fiziko-Tekhnicheskii Institute. In 1938, a
group there developed and improved on the ZENIT
(“zenith” in English) system, which had a range of
25 km (with a range error of ±500–800 m) and an
angular accuracy of 2°. By 1943, they switched to a
single-antenna system called RUBIN and reduced the
measurement time so that it could be used in auto­
matic fire control.
At NII-9, Prof. Bonch-Bruevich and B.A. Vveden­
skii developed a klystron operating at a wavelength of
15–18 m, which produced CW power of 20–255  W.
W.D.E. Malyarov and N.F. Alekseyev, working under
Prof. Bonch-Bruevich, developed water-cooled sealed-off
multicavity (up to four) magnetrons capable of generat­
ing 300 W at a wavelength of 9 cm.
56 October 2016
NII-9 also produced a pulse anti­
aircraft range finder called STRE-
LETS, which exhibited a peak power
of 16 kW at 80 cm and could locate a
Polikarpov R-5—a Soviet reconnais­
sance bomber aircraft—at a range
of 20 km with accuracy of 160 m in
range and 3°. By 1939, NII-9 also pro­
duced antiaircraft sets with a range
of 17 km with an azimuth accuracy
of 1° under the name of BURYA.
Finally, in 1940, NII-9 research­
ers combined the two systems into
the LUNA, which incorporated
the azimuth-measuring facilities
of BURYA and the range- and ele­
vation-measuring techniques of
suspended due to the invasion by
Germany in 1941, but efforts were
restarted after 1942.
Radar Development in The Netherlands
The Dutch built a working radar system before World
War II without any knowledge of the work in prog­
ress in other countries. In 1934, J.L.W.C. von Weiler
(Figure 21) from the Dutch Armed Forces created a
point-to-point link for telecommunications at 1.25 m. It
was observed that when birds flew through the path
between the transmitter and the receiver, the signal
level varied. Also, when aircraft flew overhead, reflec­
tions of signals were observed. This led to the devel­
opment of a pulse radar working at 70 cm using four
rows of vertical dipoles with each row containing eight
antennas placed in front of a wire mesh radiator. The
antennas were turned by bicycle pedals and could be
elevated by a handle.
Its purpose was to be used along with a search­
light for antiaircraft gun control. Philips began
producing them, but the German invasion in 1940
stopped production. Von Weiler and his assistant
Max Staal (Figure 22) escaped to England with the
blueprints and components that had been used to
form the original prototype (Figure 23). These were
integrated with work being done at the Portsmouth
Signal School, where 50-cm systems were being
built. Both von Weiler and Stall returned to Holland
after the war.
Radar Development in Hungary
Development of radar also took place in Hungary, without
any German initiative or help, during World War II at the
same time that other countries were pursuing advanced
radar technology. In 1942, as Hungary entered the war,
a decision was made to start microwave research with a
team led by Dr. Zolton Bay, who had been a professor of
atomic physics at the Technical University of Budapest
and also a director at the United Incandescent Lamp and
Electrical Co. Ltd. (Tungsram) Research Laboratory. In
1944, this team was instrumental in developing an experi­
mental model of a radar with a 3-m parabolic antenna
operating at 50 cm. The team also introduced techniques
used in terrestrial radar, where the signal-to-noise ratio of
the received signal was improved by averaging over mul­
tiple received pulses.
After Hungary’s invasion by Germany, all work
stopped. In 1945, the Russians dismantled the Tung­
sram factory and transported everything to the
Soviet Union. Research on radar in Hungary was
restarted in 1945, using a wavelength of 2.5 m to get
Figure 22. Max Stall. (Photo courtesy of the Stall
radar signal returns from the moon in about 2.6 s. A
archives; http://www.maxstaal.nl.)
pulse of 0.06-s duration was transmitted every 3  s.
The estimated peak pulse power was 150 kW. The
antenna was a system of 36 end-fed dipoles with a
mesh reflector giving a gain of 9 dBi. This program
was completed in 1946.

Summary
To summarize, in the period prior to and during World
War II, eight nations independently—and under great
secrecy—developed radar systems: Germany, Great Brit­
ain, the United States, France, Italy, Japan, the U.S.S.R.,
and The Netherlands. In addition, Great Britain shared
its research with four Commonwealth countries: Aus­
tralia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, each of
which also developed indigenous radar systems. More­
over, during the war, Hungary pursued extensive inde­
pendent radar research.

The Saga of the Magnetron

That Changed History
The first simple, two-pole magnetron was devel­
oped in 1920 by Albert W. Hull at General Electric’s
Research Laboratories in Schenectady, New York, as an
outgrowth of Hull’s work on the magnetic control of
vacuum tubes (and in an attempt to work around the
patents held by Lee De Forest on electrostatic control).
Hull’s magnetron was not originally intended to gener­
ate VHF electromagnetic waves.
However, in 1924 Czech physicist August Žáček
and German physicist Erich Habann independently Figure 23. The first Dutch radar. (Photo courtesy of the
discovered that the magnetron could generate waves Museum Waalsdorp; http://www.museumwaalsdorp.nl/
of 100 MHz–1 GHz. Žáček, a professor at Prague’s gesch_meetgbnl.html.)
Charles University, published first [9]; however, the
work appeared in a journal with a small circulation
and thus attracted little attention. Habann, a student In 1921, Prof. Kinyiro Ogabe and Dr. Hidetsugu
at the University of Jena, investigated the magnetron Yagi become very interested in the magnetron built
for his 1924 doctoral dissertation. and named by Hull at General Electric. Hull’s mag­
Throughout the 1920s, Hull and other researchers netron was an HF device, but Yagi was convinced
around the world worked to develop the magnetron. that it could also be a generator of VHF or even
Most of these early magnetrons were glass vacuum ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) signals. Okabe, one of
tubes with multiple anodes. However, the two-pole Yagi’s first doctoral students, was encouraged by
magnetron, also known as a split-anode magnetron his mentor in this pursuit. They experimented with
(Figure 24), had relatively low efficiency. single-anode magnetrons and then with split-anode

October 2016 57

Figure 24. A split-anode magnetron. (Photos are in the
public domain.)
Figure 25. The cavity magnetron developed by John
Randall and Harry Boot in 1940. (Photo is in the public
domain.)
magnetrons. Prof. Okabe published his first paper
in 1927 [10].
The cavity version (properly referred to as a reso-
nant-cavity magnetron) proved to be far more useful.
Between 1937 and 1940, a team led by British physicist
Sir John Turton Randall built a multicavity magnetron
used in British and American military radar installa­
tions duing the early years of World War II.
While radar was being developed for the war
effort, there arose an urgent need for a high-power
microwave generator that worked at shorter wave­
lengths [around 10 cm (3 GHz)] rather than the 150 cm
(200 MHz) available from the tube-based generators
of the time. It was known that a multicavity resonant
magnetron had been developed and patented in 1935
by Hans Hollmann in Berlin. However, the German
military considered the frequency drift of Hollman’s
device to be undesirable and so based its radar systems
on the klystron instead. Klystrons, however, could not
58 October 2016
at that time achieve the high power output that mag­
netrons eventually reached. This was one reason that
German night-fighter radars were no match for their
British counterparts.
In 1940 at the University of Birmingham in the United
Kingdom, John Randall and Harry Boot produced a
working prototype similar to Hollman’s cavity mag­
netron, but they added liquid cooling and a stronger
cavity. Randall and Boot soon managed to increase the
device’s power output 100 fold. Instead of abandoning
the magnetron due to its frequency instability, they sam­
pled the output signal and synchronized their receiver
to whatever frequency was actually being generated. In
1941, the problem of frequency instability was solved
by coupling (“strapping”) alternate cavities within the
magnetron (Figure 25).
Because France had just fallen to the Nazis and
Britain had no money to develop the magnetron on
a massive scale, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
was persuaded that Sir Henry Tizard should offer the
magnetron to the Americans in exchange for their
financial and industrial help. An early 6-kW version
built in England by the General Electric Company
(GEC) Research Laboratories, ­Wembley, London (not
to be confused with the similarly named American
company General Electric), was provided to the U.S.
government in September 1940. At the time the most
powerful equivalent microwave producer avail­
able in the United States (a klystron) had a power of
only 10 W.
The cavity magnetron was widely used during
World War II in microwave radar equipment and is
often credited with giving Allied radars a consider­
able performance advantage over German and Japa­
nese radars, thus directly influencing the outcome of
the war. According to James Phinney Baxter III, offi­
cial historian of the Office of Scientific Research and
Development (a U.S. government agency created in
May 1941 to coordinate scientific research for military
purposes during World War II),“When the members of
the Tizard Mission brought one cavity magnetron to
America in 1940, they carried the most valuable cargo
ever brought to our shores.”
The Bell Telephone Laboratories manufactured a
producible version from the magnetron model deliv­
ered to America by the Tizard mission, and, before
the end of 1940, MIT’s Radiation Laboratory had been
established to develop various types of radar using
the magnetron (see the section “Radar Development
in the United States”). By early 1941, portable centi­
metric airborne radars were being tested in American
and British aircraft. In late 1941, the Telecommunica­
tions Research Establishment in Great Britain used
the magnetron to develop a revolutionary airborne,
ground-mapping radar code-named H2S. The H2S
radar was developed, in part, by Alan Blumlein and
Bernard Lovell.
 Table 1. Frequency bands used for various radar applications.

Radar Frequency Bands

Band Name Frequency Range Wavelength Range Explanation

HF 3–30 MHz 10–100 m Used for coastal radar systems, over-the-horizon radar, etc.

VHF 30–300 MHz 1–10 m Very long range, ground penetrating

P < 300 MHz >1m “P” refers to “previous”’; appellation applied retrospectively to
early radar systems; essentially, HF and VHF

UHF 300–1,000 MHz 0.3–1 m Very long range (e.g., ballistic missile early warning), ground and
foliage penetrating

L 1–2 GHz 15–30 cm “L” refers to “long”; used for long-range air traffic control and
surveillance

S 2–4 GHz 7.5–15 cm “S” refers to “short”; used for moderate-range surveillance,
terminal air-traffic control, long-range weather, and marine radar

C 4–8 GHz 3.75–7.5 cm A compromise (hence, “C”) between the X and S bands; used
for satellite transponders, weather, and long-range tracking

X 8–12 GHz 2.5–3.75 cm “X” refers to its secrecy during World War II; used for missile
guidance, marine radar, weather, medium-resolution mapping,
short-range tracking, and ground surveillance; in the United States,
the narrow range 10.525 GHz, ±25 MHz used for airport radar

Ku 12–18 GHz 1.67–2.5 cm “U” refers to “under” the K band; high resolution; used for
satellite transponders

K 18–24 GHz
1.11–1.67 cm “K” from the German “kurz” (i.e., “short”); limited use due
to absorption by water vapor, so Ku and Ka used instead for
surveillance; K band used by meteorologists to detect clouds
and by police to detect speeding motorists (radar guns operate
at 24.150 ± 0.100 GHz)

Ka 24–40 GHz 0.75–1.11 cm Frequency just above the K band (hence, subscript “a”); used
for short-range mapping, airport surveillance, etc.; photo radar
used to trigger cameras for recording license plates of cars,
e.g., running red lights operates at 34.300 ± 0.100 GHz

mm 40–300 GHz 1.0–7.5 mm Millimeter band, with frequency ranges depending on

waveguide size; multiple letters assigned to these bands
by different groups (these are from Baytron, a now defunct
company that made test equipment)

V 40–75 GHz 4.0–7.5 mm Very strongly absorbed by atmospheric oxygen, which

resonates at 60 GHz

W 75–110 GHz 2.7–4.0 mm Used as a visual sensor for experimental autonomous vehicles,
high-resolution meteorological observation, and imaging

The importance of the magnetron’s development
cannot be overstated [1]:
In summary, one can conclude that the cav­
ity magnetron evolved from the inventiveness
of John Randall and Henry Boot and became a
working reality through the resources and expe­
rience of the GEC Laboratories at Wembley, as­
sisted by critical information supplied by the SFR
Laboratories of Paris. It could also be said that
the emergence of the cavity magnetron in 1940
as an efficient generator of microwaves allowed
from that time onward, an unrestricted growth
in microwave radar technology to take place.
Progress during the war was rapid and of great impor­
tance, probably one of the decisive factors for the vic­
tory of the Allies. Key was the fact that the magnetron
allowed the creation of relatively small systems with
sub-meter resolution.
By the end of hostilities, Great Britain, Germany, the
United States, the U.S.S.R., and Japan had a wide vari­
ety of land- and sea-based radars as well as small air­
borne systems. After the war, radar use was widened

October 2016 59
 to numerous fields such as civil aviation, marine navi­
gation, policing (radar guns), meteorology, and even
medicine. Major developments in the post-war period
include the traveling-wave tube as a way to produce
large quantities of coherent microwave power; the
development of signal-delay systems, which led to
phased-array radars; and ever-increasing frequencies
that allowed higher resolutions. Increases in signal pro­
cessing capability due to the introduction of solid-state
circuits and computers have also had a large impact on
radar use.
A list of the radars developed by different countries
all over the world is available in [8], and the develop­
ment of subsequent radars is summarized in Table 1.
From World War II to Now
During World War II, military radar operators noticed
noise in returned echoes due to weather elements like
rain, snow, and sleet. This led to the development of
weather radar.
Four techniques, highly important in post-war radars,
matured in the late 1940s and the early 1950s: 1) pulse
Doppler (often known as moving-target indicator or MTI), 2)
monopulse (also called simultaneous lobing), 3) phased ar­
ray, and 4) synthetic aperture. The first three were known,
and even used, during wartime. In 1960, aircraft flying
in certain areas were required to carry a radar transpon­
der that identified the aircraft and helped improve radar
performance as well as air-traffic control. Since 1966, the
responsible agency in the United States is the Federal Avi­
ation Administration.
Radar is extensively used in air-traffic control. A
terminal radar approach control (TRACON) is an air-
traffic control facility usually located within the vicin­
ity of a large airport. Typically, a TRACON controls
aircraft within a 30–50-nmi (56–93-km) radius of the
airport at an altitude of fewer than 15,000 ft (4,600 m).
This uses one or more airport surveillance radars
sweeping the sky once every few seconds. The digital
airport surveillance radar (DASR) is a newer TRACON
radar system, replacing the old analog systems with
digital technology. Two radar systems are included
in DASR. The primary one is an S-band (~2.8 GHz)
system with 25-kW pulse power; it provides three-
dimensional tracking of target aircraft and also mea­
sures rainfall intensity. The secondary is a P-band
(~1.05 GHz) system with a peak power of about 25 kW,
which uses a transponder set to interrogate aircraft and
receive operational information.
Radio astronomy also had its start following World
War II, and many scientists involved in radar develop­
ment then entered this field. A number of radio obser­
vatories were constructed during the following years;
however, because of the additional cost and complexity
of transmitters and associated receiving equipment,
very few were dedicated to radar astronomy. In fact,
essentially all major radar astronomy activities have
60 October 2016
been conducted as adjuncts to radio astronomy obser­
vatories. The radio telescope at the Arecibo Observa­
tory, opened in 1963 in Puerto Rico, is the largest in
the world. It is used primarily for radio astronomy,
but equipment is available for radar astronomy. This
includes transmitters operating at 47 MHz, 439 MHz,
and 2.38 GHz, all with very high pulse power. It has
a 305-m (1,000-ft) primary reflector fixed in position;
the secondary reflector is on tracks to allow precise
pointing to different parts of the sky. Many significant
scientific discoveries have been made using the Are­
cibo telescope, such as mapping the surface roughness
of Mars and observing Saturn and its largest moon,
Titan. In 1989, the observatory radar-imaged an aster­
oid for the first time in history.
Applications of radar also include autonomous
cruise-control systems, autonomous landing guidance,
radar altimeter, air-traffic management, early-warning
radar, fire-control radar, forward-warning collision
sensing, ground-penetrating radar, surveillance, Dop­
pler radar, weather forecasting, and so on. Its applica­
tions have penetrated many areas of engineering.
Conclusions
The concept of radar evolved simultaneously and inde­
pendently in many countries. Although the emergence
of radar aided significantly in bringing World War II
to an end, its development would have continued even
without these defensive purposes, as the commercial
applications of radar have also been quite important.
Acknowledgement
We gratefully acknowledge all the reviewers for sug­
gesting ways to improve the content and readability of
the manuscript.
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