"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

"Robert Sveinson" wrote in message
...

I seem to remember that in late 1944, or early
1945 the RAF were developing,
an AWACS type of system, so that
the bombers could go deep into Germany.

Some testing was done with a modified Wellington but
it never entered service.

The outline is as follows,

The idea of Air Control of Interception was proposed by
Watson-Watt in August 1941, the idea being as a control
for fighters intercepting Fw200 over the Atlantic.

The Telecommunications Research Establishment modified
Wellington R1629 with a rotating Yagi dipole antenna, 9
inch PPI, high powered transmitter and an ASV II radar.
Trials in 1942 and 1943 were quite successful, the system
was dismantled in April 1943.

There is a 3 page article on the system by Lawrence Hayward in
the spring 2004 edition of Aviation World.

With the use of He111s flying over the North Sea at low level
to launch V-1s against the UK the ACI/AWACS was revived
as operation Vapour.

This time ASV VI was the radar, trials and some operational
sorties were done in January 1945. Sea returns provided the
usual low altitude range problem, at higher altitudes aircraft were
detected at 14 miles range. Just as the system was being put
into operation the Luftwaffe effectively ceased He111 V-1
operations. The only interceptions made were of allied
aircraft.

The plan was to convert the Wellingtons of 407 squadron
into airborne control, with the step after that to use B-24s
for round the clock coverage.

It was fun if you were in the Mosquito XXX, to stay with
the Wellington, you flew with flaps and undercarriage down,
at low altitude.

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/rcaf/exag0306.html

See The History of Air Intercept Radar and the British
Nightfighter by Ian White and Diver! Diver! Diver! by Brian
Cull and Bruce Lander

Geoffrey Sinclair
Remove the nb for email.