Wireless

[Old Tom]

Hello,

The thread on spotting has revealed a lot of great interest to me as I have become interested in the use of radio, or should I say wireless, both in aircraft and on the ground, on the Western Front. My understanding, so far, is that wireless telegraphy was most used and that telephony (speech) was not possible with mobile equipment. One of the difficulties was power supply. On the ground batteries were heavy and large containers filled with acid difficult to handle. Aircraft, on the other hand, had a potential power source, either a mechanically driven generator from the engine or, perhaps, a wind/slipstream driven generator mounted outside the fuselage. Can any expert give me a steer as to any publication on the subject?

Old Tom

[Guest birdflightless]

Hi Old Tom,

R.A.F. Biggin Hill, by Graham Wallace, published by Putnam, 1957, has a couple of interesting chapters on the 'Wireless Testing Park' - for the evaluation of all new wireless apparatuus for the R.F.C.

Long out of print but a book search should find one for about a tenner.

Regards

Stewart

[Old Tom]

Hello,

Many thanks, I'll see what the Hampshire County Library can find. They have surprised me several times.

Old Tom

[Guest geoff501]

From Wireless Telephony and Broadcasting, Dowsett 1923:

"

In the evolution of a practical wireless telephone set many difficult problems not met with in the ground service had to be faced and overcome before any direct progress could be recorded.

The apparatus had to be of low power and of the most simplest character, as it would have to be operated by a non-technical pilot whose time was already very fully occupied without this additional duty.

When speaking into the microphone the operator's voice had to make itself heard above the noise of the engine and the machine generally.

The receiver, also working on a poor picking-up aerial, had to produce clear audible speech of sufficient loudness to be heard above the roar of the machine, and the interference by induction from the engine ignition system had to be stopped.

The first spoken message from aeroplane to ground was obtained by the experimental section of the Royal Flying Corps in the summer of 1915* at the Wireless School, Brooklands, and in February, 1916, a demonstration was given at St. Omer to Lord Kitchener.

A satisfactory aircraft receiving set was evolved later in the same year, but it was not until 1917 that inter-machine wireless telephony became an accomplished fact and was used for formation control.

With the preliminary difficulties solved, the work of equipping both the Overseas and Home Defence squadrons was well in hand at the time of the Armistice.

The working range was then about 20 miles from aeroplane to ground, and about 3 miles from machine to machine.

"

* "Wireless Telephony on Aeroplanes", by Major C. E. Prince, O.B.E., in Journal I.E.E., May, 1920.

[Old Tom]

Hello Geoff 501

Many thanks. That seems to confirm that wireless telegraphy was the only possible air to ground communication on the Western Front.

Old Tom

[Moonraker]

www.marconicalling.com has some pics and text on ground-to-air wireless experiments at Larkhill in September 1910. Robert Loraine, an actor-airman, flew a Farman with a 14lb portable transmitter attached to the passenger seat, with "aerial wires" stretched the length and breadth of the plane. Enter "Loraine" in the homepage search box.