The origin of Radar is secret. Even after commercialization, the inventors remained in the shadows, secret warriors who enabled the Allies to shoot down the Nazi Lufthansa with eerie precision. Consequently, it was as if the Allies could project through the clouds exactly where the planes were. Of course, that would be impossible…
Specifically, Watt supervised, Wilkins sketched, and Bowen built the first radar system for locating aircraft.
Earlier, Watt, a meteorologist, originally designed a more primitive system for detecting lightning.
The project started, ironically, with a German. Heinrich Hertz described a system but seems never have built one. Radio can transmit and receive electromagnetic waves.
Allied forces relied extensively on Wilkins radar in WWII. Shrouded in secrecy radar, considered vital to the war effort, radar was secret. Wilkins is as a “forgotten man.” For decades nobody knew he invented one of the great technologies of the modern world.
“Many things were adopted in war which we were told were technically impossible, but patience, perseverance, and above all the spur of necessity under war conditions, made men’s brains act with greater vigour, and science responded to the demands.”
Winston Churchill, June 1935