The AN/APQ-13 radar was an American ground scanning radar developed by Bell Laboratories, Western Electric, and MIT as an improved model of the airborne H2X radar, itself developed from the first ground scanning radar, the British H2S radar. It was used on B-29s during World War II in the Pacific theater for high altitude area bombing, search and navigation. Computation for bombing could be performed by an impact predictor. A range unit permitted a high degree of accuracy in locating beacons. The radome was carried on the aircraft belly between the bomb bays and was partially retractable on early models. The radar operated at a frequency of 9375 ± 45 megahertz and used a superheterodyne receiver.
The AN/APQ-13 radar was the first military radar converted to civilian use as a weather warning radar. About 30 systems were converted, starting in late 1945. They were installed in the aircraft at military bases. [1]
The last operational APQ-13 was removed from the Fort Sill, Oklahoma post weather station in October 1977 for display at what is now the National Museum of the United States Air Force. The museum intended to display it in its original configuration as a navigation and bombing radar, but would note the radar's much longer history as an operational weather radar. [2]
The AN/APQ-13 weather radars were generally replaced by the AN/CPS-9, which was specifically designed as a weather radar. [1]
The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production models of the F-111 had roles that included attack, strategic bombing, reconnaissance and electronic warfare. Aardvark comes from a South African animal that has a long nose and hugs the terrain. It is an Afrikaans word that translates literally as "earth pig" — hence the aircraft's "Pig" nickname during its Australian service.
The Vought F-8 Crusader is a single-engine, supersonic, carrier-based air superiority jet aircraft designed and produced by the American aircraft manufacturer Vought. It was the last American fighter that had guns as the primary weapon, earning it the title "The Last of the Gunfighters".
The Grumman A-6 Intruder is an American twinjet all-weather attack aircraft developed and manufactured by American aircraft company Grumman Aerospace and formerly operated by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps.
The LTV A-7 Corsair II is an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV).
The Douglas F3D Skyknight is an American twin-engined, mid-wing jet fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company.
H2S was the first airborne, ground scanning radar system. It was developed for the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command during World War II to identify targets on the ground for night and all-weather bombing. This allowed attacks outside the range of the various radio navigation aids like Gee or Oboe, which were limited to about 350 kilometres (220 mi) of range from various base stations. It was also widely used as a general navigation system, allowing landmarks to be identified at long range.
H2X, officially known as the AN/APS-15, was an American ground scanning radar system used for blind bombing during World War II. It was a development of the British H2S radar, the first ground mapping radar to be used in combat. It was also known as the "Mickey set" and "BTO" for "bombing through the overcast" radar.
Terrain-following radar (TFR) is a military aerospace technology that allows a very-low-flying aircraft to automatically maintain a relatively constant altitude above ground level and therefore make detection by enemy radar more difficult. It is sometimes referred to as ground hugging or terrain hugging flight. The term nap-of-the-earth flight may also apply but is more commonly used in relation to low-flying military helicopters, which typically do not use terrain-following radar.
The Martin Mace was a ground-launched cruise missile developed from the earlier Martin TM-61 Matador. It used a new self-contained navigation system that eliminated the need to get updates from ground-based radio stations, and thereby allowed it to fly further beyond the front lines. To take advantage of this longer practical range, Mace was larger than Matador and could travel a longer total distance.
The Ryan Model 147 Lightning Bug is a jet-powered drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle, produced and developed by Ryan Aeronautical from the earlier Ryan Firebee target drone series.
The General Dynamics–Grumman EF-111A Raven is a retired electronic-warfare aircraft designed to replace the EB-66 Destroyer in the United States Air Force. Its crews and maintainers often called it the "Spark-Vark", a play on the F-111's "Aardvark" nickname.
AN/APQ-116 is one of the most numerous terrain-following radars (TFRs) produced in the world, and with over 500 units built, it was a member of a family of TFRs consisted of nearly two dozen models, all of which are based on the same general design principle. First developed by Texas Instruments, and later produced by Raytheon when the latter purchased the radar business of the former.
A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to drop bombs accurately. Bombsights, a feature of combat aircraft since World War I, were first found on purpose-designed bomber aircraft and then moved to fighter-bombers and modern tactical aircraft as those aircraft took up the brunt of the bombing role.
The AN/APG-76 radar is a pulse Doppler Ku band multi-mode radar developed and manufactured by Northrop Grumman.
Green Satin, also known as ARI 5851, was a Doppler radar system developed by the Royal Air Force as an air navigation aid. The system provided direct measures of the drift speed and direction, and thereby allowed accurate calculation of the winds aloft. These values were then fed into the Navigation and Bombing System.
The AN/APQ-120 was an aircraft fire control radar (FCR) manufactured by Westinghouse for the McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II. AN/APQ-120 has a long line of lineage, with its origin traced all the way back to Aero-13 FCR developed by the same company in the early 1950s. A total of half a dozen FCRs were tested and evaluated on the first 18 F-4s built, but they were soon replaced by later radars produced in great numbers, including AN/APQ-120.
Airborne Interception radar, or AI for short, is the British term for radar systems used to equip aircraft in air-to-air role. These radars are used primarily by Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm night fighters and interceptors for locating and tracking other aircraft, although most AI radars could also be used in a number of secondary roles as well. The term was sometimes used generically for similar radars used in other countries.
The AN/APQ-7, or Eagle, was a radar bombsight system developed by the US Army Air Force. Early studies started in late 1941 under the direction of Luis Alvarez at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, but full-scale development did not begin until April 1943. By this time US-built, higher frequency systems promising better performance over the existing British H2S radar were entering production. Eagle's even higher resolution was considered important to Air Force planners who preferred precision bombing but were failing to deliver it, and high hopes were put on the system's abilities to directly attack small targets like docks and bridges.