[ARC5] British WWII Avionics

[Robert Eleazer]

I note that all of the SCR-522 sets have both U.S. and British nametags.  I wonder if any other equipment had that feature?

The 522 must not have been too horrible, because it appears that the receiver formed the basis for the BC-639 ground radio, which of course dispensed with that bizarre crystal tuning scheme.

I read that the British invented microwave airborne radar and bought it to the U.S.  They thought the Americans were boastful when they described their enthusiasm for the new technology and how they would use it.  But a month after the British introduced the U.S. to the radar technology the U.S. knew as much as the British and had designed their own version of the set, with a better receiver.  A month after that the new factory to build the sets was completed.  And a month after that the set was in full production.  The British were astonished.  The Americans were not bragging but simply stating facts.  The British quit building the sets and just bought them from the U.S..  They eventually started building some of their own later, just so they would not forget how.

I think the same thing happened with the SCR-522.

As for British bomber radios, I would guess they had no need for a "command set."  The RAF heavy bombers did little daylight formation flying until the latter part of 1944, when the USAAF had pretty well cleaned up the Luftwaffe relative to the shorter range missions, such as to France.  I wonder if the B-17's, B-24's and B-25's the British operated used U.S. or British radios? 

Wayne