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A.P.Rowe had been appointed secretary to the Tizard committee and
he asked Watson Watt for more technical elucidation of his ideas.
Two weeks later this was received and in that memo Watson Watt suggests
that a "a system of radiolocation using a pulse / echo technique
be developed by the extension of known means". Rowe and Wimperis
were impressed and so was Air Marshall Dowding. A grant of £10,000
was immediately proposed but subject to a successful feasibility demonstration
taking place.
The BBC had a powerful short-wave transmitter Station near Daventry,
the Empire Radio Station, with a power output of 10 kW. The wavelength
was 49m and the continuous beam was about
30 degrees wide and with a 10 degree elevation. On 26th February,
1935, Wilkins (as operator), Rowe (as observer) and Watson Watt
assembled in the aerial field whilst an old Hadley Page Heyford
bomber made a number of passes at differing altitudes from 6000
ft down to 1000 ft.
Two receiving aerials fed into a sensitive mobile receiver connected
to an oscilloscope. The equipment had been rigged inside a van to
detect any echoes that were bounced back from the aeroplane. After
careful adjustment, the results were dramatic; 'blips' appeared
on the screen at distances of up to eight miles.
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The Three men were delighted.
Watson-Watt turned to Rowe and said:
"Great
Britain is an island again!"
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The Daventry
Experiment, painting by Roy Huxley
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