Arnold Wilkins OBE
(1907-1985)
Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire and pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology
Died aged c. 78
Wikidata WikipediaArnold Frederic Wilkins OBE (20 February 1907 – 5 August 1985) was a pioneer in developing the use of radar. It was Arnold Wilkins who suggested to his boss, Robert Watson-Watt, that reflected radio waves might be used to detect aircraft, and his idea led to the initial steps in developing ground-to-air radar in the UK. Wilkins also provided all the theoretical calculations to back-up his idea of aircraft detection, and it was his lashed-up system that he used in the Daventry Experiment to demonstrate that his idea would work. With the Daventry experiment, Wilkins successfully detected an aircraft (up to eight miles away) by reflection of radio waves for the first time in history.
DbPedia
Commemorated on 1 plaque
Birth of radar memorial. On 26th February 1935 in the field opposite Robert Watson-Watt and Arnold Wilkins showed for the first time in Britain that aircraft could be detected by bouncing radio waves off them. By 1939 there were 20 stations tracking aircraft at distances up to more than 100 miles. Later known as radar, it was this invention. more than any other, that saved the RAF from defeat in the 1940 Battle Of Britain.
, Litchborough, United Kingdom where they was (1935)