The Second Century Papers: Looking Ahead in Aeronautics—12

Extract

In considering the spectrum of possibilities which advances in electronics offers during the next fifty years it is worth a short backward glance over an equal time span.

In 1918 the use of electronics was almost entirely devoted to developments in the radio frequency field, principally those of communication and sound amplification. Wireless telegraphy under pressure from naval and merchant marine requirements had reached the stage where it formed a dependable means of communication, albeit with the need for specialised human skills, for the world's modern shipping.

There had been a limited amount of aeronautical radio development during the war, to reduce the size and weight of wireless telegraphy and the later radio telephony transmitters; much of the later stages of this work was carried out at Biggin Hill. However, these developments had scarcely any influence upon either the design and construction of aircraft or perhaps more important only a small influence on their operation. It was to be sometime before the exploitation of the radio frequency spectrum on the ground and in the air contributed to increase greatly the operational capability of the aeroplane during the 1930's.