Science in Action: Radar Defense Screen (1956)

[Music] you know it's been almost 200 years now since that famous night when Paul Rivier looked up into the church Tower there in Boston and saw the lantern which signaled to him the approach of the enemy now in the period of time since then there have been a great many changes but the one change that has been most important to all of us is the fact that today our two oceans one on either side of the country are no longer barriers to a sudden surprise attack now let's watch this now this is an enemy bomber now what we saw there could happen to any of us fortunately it is the responsibility of the United States Air Force to prevent such disasters the Old Lantern of fall time has given way today to such modern things as the electronic eye which sweeps the sky both by day and by night to prevent the arrival of any unwelcome Intruder so let's look now at our all important radar defense screen to tell us of this we are privileged to have as our guest on science and action Brigadier General James W Andrew United States Air Force welcome to science and action General Andrew thank you Dr harell I'm I'm glad to be here I'd like to point out that while the Air Force is responsible for air defense we are closely assisted by a group from the Army and Navy as well as a very important group of civilians known as the ground Observer Corp looking at this map over here I can see that it must take a tremendous group in order to do all of the things that you have to do we have some 3 million miles square miles of territory here in the United States and just about 10,000 miles of both border and coastline complet around the country it's such a big job Earl that the Air Force has made the Air Defense command a major command of the Air Force with headquarters in Colorado Springs here headed by a fourstar general Benjamin W chidlaw he has his command divided into three Air Defense Forces the Eastern Air Defense Force made up of three air divisions the central air defense force made up of five airion divions and the Western Air Defense Force made up of three air divisions this area is covered by a network of radar stations with overlapping um areas something like this in other words then if one of these radar station should go out then the radar station on either side could cover that area without any trouble that's right well I know that your command headquarters are right here at Hamilton field and when I look over to this relief map I find that Hamilton field would be just about at this point right here here not so far away up on the top of Mount Tamil pias is a very strange looking ball now I know a lot of people have seen that and perhaps have seen other things in other parts of the country that look like it now what is it and what does it do I'd be glad to talk to you about that ARL if we'll come over here this model I think I can show you a little better uh what it is this uh bubble which you spoke about simply covers the antenna of our radar station uh primarily it's a protection against the weather uh we can't cover this antenna with metal nor even with material like wood which would be held together with metal or with nails because the metal would interfere with the radar signal so this radome as it's called is made out of nylon reinforced rubber which is very strong it's inflated by compressed air just like a balloon well since this bubble is a sort of a raincoat then let's take off the rain coat and see what's on the inside the important part of the insulation here of course we see the antenna but before we examine this in detail perhaps we should find out just what radar is you know since World War II radar has become a household word but it's still somewhat mysterious well radar is a coined word Earl and I could explain it simply like this R A stands for radio D for direction a for and and R for range radio Direction and range it's simply a method of using electromagnetic waves to detect the presence of objects which are beyond our normal vision well now these electromagnetic waves you speak of those are the same waves that we use in radio and also in television but here in radar you use them for a different purpose that's right radar seems mysterious because we can't actually see the waves but we can demonstrate the principle rather easily by using water if I drop a pebble like this uh you'll notice that it starts a series of ripples that move out toward the edge in circles when they hit an obstruction at the edge they start coming back toward the point where we dro the pebble then in radar the transmitter would correspond to that same Pebble and as it sends out its radio waves the waves would hit an obstruction they bounce back and be reflected back to the radar station again yes and since our radio wave travels at the speed of light which is 186,000 m per second the echo from an object 200 miles away would come back almost instantaneously in fact we have to measure the time in micros seconds this insulation here contains both the transmitting and receiving antenna for a radar station well you know it looks somewhat like a dish or one of these futuristic things we see uh it doesn't work that way of course well not exactly but it's somewhat similar I'd say that this dish appearing aair uh acts somewhat like a mirror the radio energy is transmitted up through this little horn right here it's reflected back onto the antenna or mirror concentrated and sent out into space now if in this concentrated area it should intercept a mountain a ship or an airplane it will U be reflected back onto the antenna be picked up in a sort of reverse Direction now I just plugged this in and of course we can see it moving around and over here we have two aircraft here's an Interceptor here here is an enemy aircraft you notice each of them has a small light underneath and as the radar antenna comes over it uh turns on this light but then we have something else happening down here and what happens here General I think this bendex model here gives a very good illustration of the way we intercept an unknown aircraft Arrow as the antenna goes around this beam of energy which I spoke of is thrown out into space and as it intercepts the hypothetical bomber track it sets up a little blip of light right there now we have here an Interceptor on its way out to intercept this hypothetical bomber and as the antenna goes around it makes this little beam of light right here now the radar operator will be sitting in the middle of the skope right about that point right there other words this sweep hand as it moves around then would would leave these marks as we see that's right he uh he has a series of concentric circles something like this by which he can measure the distance which the blips are away and as this hand this sweep goes around these spots of light are illuminated as you saw well that's a very simple demonstration or an explanation for a complicated piece of equipment we have one of these over here now and I see the operator is just warming it up uh there all sorts of dials and gadgets there and everything else and before we actually turn that on perhaps we could look again General at a photograph of what the sweep P's going to do now as we see it moving very shortly well yes this shows it very well here's a an illustration of the sweep pan Which I spoke of here corresponding to the line which I drew on the radar scope here you see the little blips of Light which correspond to the concentric circles in this manner here you have a rather large blip of Light which would show a radar track that large spot is probably a bomber or a group of smaller planes here you see another bright spot which is probably an Interceptor such as this going out to intercept the bomber well I can see here that the signal is starting and then as it starts in uh the hand begins to swing around and very shortly as it moves around those little bits of light that you mentioned come into place there two planes approaching each other one from the East and one from the West you can see the blips are getting closer together since we can figure the distance the plane has traveled in a given length of time we can also determine his speed then by utilizing another antenna we are able to determine his altitude by this time a plotter would be able to start plotting the course of these planes on his board now this U plotting board that we have here in the laboratory I understand is very very simple similar to those that you have at various radar sites in the air defense network and of course as you mentioned the purpose is to correlate all the information on each plane and flight incidentally I noticed your man there and has to write backwards and what amazes me is that he can write backwards and do it very quickly he has to be able to do it fast those planes really move our two planes are coming right along I think we might take another look at our screen Roger you see how the flashes are coming very close together our Interceptor to the right is getting close to the unknown now they're almost touching at this point if the plane was friendly but unidentified the interceptors would send back an identification you have two types of grids there in other words starting from the point where he would be located in the center you have a series of circles and then over that you have superimposed a number of squares now just what does that mean and how significant is it the radar operator represents a hub of these concentric circles right when he calls out the range and direction of a plane on a scope he's speaking of it in relation to his own position but if I'm trying to follow the course down here at Hamilton field it wouldn't mean a thing to me in other words it'd be like somebody in the next laboratory saying well now where are you General and you would answer him while I'm standing one foot to the right of me you would know either where either one of us were that's exactly right so we have this circular diagram or polar grid which um I wanted to point out and did point out a while ago these concentric circles which give distance but over that we can we can place a geographical grid something like this which uh by which we can tell the exact position of a plane regardless because these are major in latitude and longitude and one of these squares will always be the same no matter where you are any place in the world that's right you can always find it well let's go now to a typical radar Center or a direction Center and see the type of work that is carried on there now I see the huge potting board very much like the one that we have here and I noticed that there are a number of Scopes there uh uh those have different sectors do they that's right you'll notice the two men down at the table down in front they are the tellers who are in direct communication with the control center at the Airfield and the men in the back then would be the uh uh they would be responsible those are plotters carry on the work there yes sir those are the tellers there well now I can see how you could correlate all that work there but let's look at this map over here because here's something I'm not clear on in other words uh you could tell a plane and identify it in the continental United States but what what if you had a plane out here in the middle of the ocean what would you do then that'd be no problem at all to save money we've set up what we call a corridor system something like this with five qus that's a little larger than it actually is something like that now the Civil Aeronautics Administration has U set up a system whereby they give each pilot who leaves Honolulu a seal envelope and uh in that envelope is a set of instructions which uh he must follow very closely because if he gets in the wrong Corridor here and follows the wrong instructions when he opens his envelope we send an Interceptor out to determine who he is and if he's all right then you let him come in but if it happened to be somebody else why then the Interceptor would be able to tell about that that's right usually they're in the right Corridor we've saved about $30,000 a month since we've set in that uh system because uh interception is really an expensive process well I know that in your control center these little raid stands as you call them are vitally important uh they're rather complicated so I wonder if uh you could uh perhaps set up one of these here and give us an idea as to what these various uh markings mean I'd be Mighty glad to do that Earl I'll I'll make up a raid stand for you here's uh the top block which is the identification of the aircraft and this happens to be a Yellow Block which would indicate that he's unknown we have green blocks for friendly and red for hosle fortunately we've never had to use any of those the second block which I'm going to put on the raid stand is uh the identifier of the the radar station which is carrying the track that is the first one picked it up originally that picked it up the first one which picked up the track now each radar station gives a track number so this first station gives the track number 15 that means that in the last 24 hours he's picked up 15 tracks and this is the 15th track now the next block is the designator of the radar station which is presently carrying the track in other words it's moved away from the first radar station and now another station has picked it up you see a plane can be flying along the coast it' be picked up by a station and um is carried by secondary station now here we have the U the block which indicates the number of aircraft in the blip then we have its altitude in multiples of thousands this would indicate 20,000 ft and there we have um its speed 250 knots let's take these two raid stands this one an unknown ship we don't know what it is and this one an inter Interceptor and take them into the control room and see how they are able to be moved about on this giant map and how you're able to keep track of them that way now this is your giant plotting board yes sir that's um huge table is marked off in squares exactly like the geographical Grid in the plotting board we just saw uh glancing over this board you can tell what planes are in the air over a vast area how fast they're going as well as their Direction and altitude in time of actual attack well let's see first to General these people who are sitting here these are your assistants in the operation of the U of the control center that's correct it takes a number of people to operate a control center like this in time of actual attack uh I'd be sitting up there on the balcony to the right of those two officers you see just above the senior controller and his assistant well in other words then if you had to pull planes from one place you could do it very quickly and easily that'd be a very simple job all I have to do would be pick up a receiver and give the order and this is where you keep track of all everything that's happened to a plane on this big board that's right that man uh is indicating there the status of aircraft radar stations and so forth MH and we come back down to the board again uh how many of these raid stands would you have on a boarded a single time in other words would you have 50 aircraft in the air oh not normally I'd say that would be a saturated raid if we had 50 raid stands you can see that those are identified as friendly for the most part there he's putting one up out there now that looks like an unknown that is similar to our unknown that we had right here that is exactly it has a yellow designator on top and is moving in toward our Coastline m yes there he's put up an identification it's unknown and then the next thing he would do is what send up an Interceptor well he wouldn't send him up but the direction Center would yes there there he actually goes he's in the process of making his interception right now that's looks like a 94c an all- weather fighter Interceptor yes there you see the fighter raid stand going out to make the interception with the unknown he's on his way out now let's see 25 that's 250 knots right moving them closer yes they're moving closer together you can see from the arrows there the direction in which they're moving now they're getting rather close together now now these people they are associated agencies they are indeed uh we have representatives from the Civil Air uh Aeronautics Association the fcda the federal civil defense Administration the air rescue service and so forth in case of an actual attack that'd be Mighty busy people two two stands are coming closer all the time that means that the Interceptor is getting up to the unknown aircraft and yes there he is obviously the fighter now has has him in sight you see he's pulled up his speed brakes and he should be he should be headed before for home right now oh he's peeling off yeah there he goes now that's a 94c uh Starfire one of our latest type straight wi supersonic interceptors we get him back to the field as soon as we can here he comes into land he's going to refuel um reload his rockets and be ready to go oh that uh that uh parachute there that's something I haven't seen very often yes I'm glad you noticed that that's a drug shoot that plane comes in pretty fast about 135 knots and and uh we have to have that to save these brakes well now since we've identified the aircraft then we can change this from yellow to green and everything is all right that's a good idea we're okay now well now General we have scarcely mentioned the overall work of your many planes in this uh defense setup you can have fine radar but if you didn't have planes for followup then uh uh your radar wouldn't be very good I agree with you now what would various points in your air defense now uh well there there are four points there they're very important in air defense detection is the first then identification interception and finally destruction each is dependent upon the other and of course all of these four things again are dependent upon Precision flying by your Pilots so uh let's watch now at some of the Maneuvers that are carried out in this Precision flying for example with your famous saber Knights and see how they go through these Maneuvers nothing can suit me better Earl I love to see them whether it's on movies or otherwise there you see the boys walking out to their airplanes they're led by Major gard and there he goes he's walking out to his airplane he's the commanding officer of one of my fighter Interceptor squadrons I might say that those four young men are fine gentlemen they're all master Pilots there goes major Garden he's U heading his f86 e down the runway now there they go they're taking off now and um it's a mighty f F side I wish you could have an opportunity to see them they do some mighty fine Precision you were mentioning earlier that they they took off on oxygen I didn't realize that was the case yes uh however that isn't an abnormal procedure at calll you see if uh one of those fellas should get right behind the other uh he would be breathing the exhaust fumes from that jet engine and would inhale a pretty good shot of carbon monoxide go over now that was a normal roll or was that something special well that's uh a little special because they're very close formation also those Maneuvers are being performed very close to the ground uh those men are really Precision Flyers as you can see from that formation the three men who follow oh there he goes in another role the three men who follow they guide themselves by the leader that's right except to the leader to see after the welfare and the safety of his three wingmen because actually they follow him they don't really know where they are well now a little bit earlier in the program General you mentioned your important group the ground Observer core now why do you have to have a ground Observer core and why doesn't radar do the job that's something we'd like to know I was hoping you'd ask me that question and I'm very glad to give you a hypothetical um version of how it might work let's suppose that an enemy plane an enemy bomber had penetrated our Coastline and it dropped over into this Valley now as I explained a little while ago the beams from our radar station cannot penetrate these mountains it bounce off the mountain wouldn't get the plane they wouldn't show the plane at all so if he got over here behind the Sierra in this Valley or over in the Valley of the of our Coastal behind our coastal range he could only be picked up by the laborers the farmers the woodsmen the school teachers and any of these fine people who have been willing to give two hours a week to the ground Observer Corp who would detect where he is by listening to him or seeing in other words without the ground Observer Corp he could sneak in and perhaps drop a bomb any place that he wish then that is where he was out of the range of the radar well now let's see you have 300,000 people on your rolls is that enough well actually no it isn't enough of that 300,000 only about 109,000 are actually on active duty now helping the way they should we need a total of about 500,000 well that's certainly something to keep in mind and I'm sure that all of our viewers will do that another piece of equipment that is very interesting you were telling us about is this special plane now what does it do especially with this big fin on the top there looks like a sail fish this is our latest piece of radar gar that's an rc11 it's really a super constellation equipped with uh special radar and Communications gear this uh this uh obstruction or um elongation here on top is merely a rayome that has an antenna about 8 ft tall and this bubble underneath here is filled with Communications and electronic gear oh yes well suppose we watch the ship then as it might be taking off and see uh how this would look in actual operation on the U on the airport it looks rather unwieldy there I I get that's not the case though no no people uh friends of mine who have flown this airplane tell me that it flies very much like the passenger type aircraft it's very fast it has a long range and great endurance and it makes a very valuable addition to our to our radar Defense Net because this plane could be able to Vector a fighter Interceptor to a hostile bomber track a long distance at Sea it's certainly an amazing and a very beautiful craft but General looking back over these various factors in the defense picture we see the great radar installation skilled operators ready to interpret the radar picture control center where the flight of every plane is carefully watched of course the jet Pilots ready to take off on an instance notice and then the very faithful and all important ground Observer cores uh patiently watching the sky and finally of course this flying radar unit that we saw demonstrated here you know that's uh quite a difference from the sort of thing that Paul Riv had to his Lantern in the Watchtower yes sir but the Paul R had one great Advantage people were prepared and willing to act when he gave the word today the people of our country have yet to be convinced that our present danger is a very real one organizations such as the civil defense Authority and the ground Observer Corp are vital supplements to our military force yet they remain under man while a hostile Force overseas grows stronger every day in other words then radar can only warn us it may keep us from a surprise attack but on the other hand if an attack does come every one of us has to be ready to do the thing that we will need to do that's exactly right General Andrew I want to thank you for coming to science and action to tell us about these matters thank you Dr ARL uh Dr Harold I've enjoyed it very much I'll be back in just a moment with the animal the we our animal of the week is a very very rare parrot it's one of the most rare birds that we've ever had on the program it is the hawk-headed parrot and it comes from the Amazon basin and also from Northeastern South America brought here by Don philit now Don uh this parrot I know is one of many that you brought in at Robinson's you import a lot of them but have you ever seen one of these before uh no Mr Robinson who's been in the business for over a hundred years has never seen one before perhaps we could raise this Crest here so we could see what uh what's involved on the uh on that Crest he's not very willing right now uh one thing very odd about these birds is as you know no bird likes to be put on their back and this fellow does and in that position he'll play with a stick so there he comes up again most uh most birds of course you put them on their back and you have trouble right away soon well uh the hawk name of course comes from this Crest which is in the back here so I presume that's a uh one of the one of the reasons why this fell has been given that name well Don I hope you will keep us advis as how this fellow does and thanks very much for being with us you're welcome now here's something very strange the letter A came originally from the ox's head and on our next program we'll have an opportunity to find out how that was derived when our special guest will be Dr Lloyd Reynolds of Reed College in Oregon we hope that you will plan to be with the same thanks a lot you have just seen another in the fascinating television series science in action science in action is produced by the California Academy of Sciences under the supervision of Dr Robert C [Music] Miller