Radar, whether we’re talking air traffic control, thunderstorm detection, navigation, or even air combat, is a technology that has shaped the history of flight in countless ways. The word “radar” is an acronym (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and was coined in 1939 by the United States Army Signal Corps as it worked on these systems for the Navy. Its rapid development during World War II, is still well known in the aviation community, and it’s often associated with that era.
A Brief History
The science of radar goes back half a century earlier when the physicist Heinrich Hertz demonstrated the characteristic of electromagnetic waves to reflect off objects. In the earliest decades of the 20th century, it was suggested that electromagnetic reflection could be harnessed to detect ships in coastal areas and harbors, but there was little interest.
