Arnold Wilkins
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Arnold Frederic Wilkins
Early life
Born in
Career
Radar
He was usually known as 'Skip' Wilkins and worked at the Radio Research Station (RRS) with Robert Watson-Watt. In an experiment on 26 February 1935 in a field in Northamptonshire at Stowe Nine Churches, Watson-Watt and Wilkins became the first to prove the possibility of radar. Known as the Daventry Experiment, this demonstration detected a Royal Air Force Heyford bomber aircraft at a distance of eight miles. In mid-May 1935, Wilkins left the Radio Research Station with a small party, including Edward George Bowen, to start further research at Orford Ness, an isolated peninsula on the coast of the North Sea. By June they were detecting aircraft at 27 km, which was enough for scientists and engineers to stop all work on competing sound-based detection systems. The successful results of the initial test led to the setting up of a research station that was to become the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE).
By the end of the year the range was up to 100 km, at which point plans were made in December to set up five stations covering the approaches to London by Watson-Watt and Sir Henry Tizard. Those stations opened in 1938 with the help of Wilkins and were further extended to the Chain Home system. In 1938, he helped to develop the British version of the Identification friend or foe (IFF) system.
After the war, he worked at the Radio Research Station in
Personal life
He died in Saxtead, near Framlingham, Suffolk. His widow, Nancy, died in Framlingham in 2011. They are survived by three daughters.
Further reading
- Colin Latham and Anne Stobbs, The Birth of British Radar: The Memoirs of Arnold 'Skip' Wilkins, Speedwell for the Defence Electronics History Society 2006, ISBN 0-9537166-2-7
- Victor Lown and Paul Mitchell (2010). Arnold Wilkins: Pioneer of British Radar. The Historian (Journal of the UK Historical Association) no. 107, pp. 15–17. http://www.history.org.uk/resources/student_resource_3570.html
See also
- Alan Blumlein
- History of radar
- Aeronautical Research Committee(Tizard Committee)
References
- ISBN 978-1-4269-2110-0.
- ^ "The Early Days of Radar in Great Britain". Churchill Archives Centre, ArchiveSearch. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.