The progressive increase of traffic density and of aircrafts speed involves an increase psico-physical commitment by the traffic controllers, as a consequence of the countless operations linked to the control function. For this reason the computers were introduced even in the air traffic control. In these computers the information coming from the radars are integrated with the ones either from the flight plans or other sources or with the ones related to the forgone airplanes movements. An immediate vision of the traffic situation can be had only with the use of the radar; so, for an efficient automation of the air traffic control, it is necessary to introduce into the elaboration system also the data coming from the observation of the radar, which has become an essential element in the control of the air traffic.
Let’s have a look at its history RADAR is the acronym of the English phrase” Radio Detection And Ranging” and indicates a system that utilizes radio waves to notice and localize objects that are able to reflect them. As many inventions of the last century, also the radar has many fathers. In 1903 Hulsmeyer, a German engineer carried on experiments on the detection of electromagnetic waves (E.M.W) reflected by the ship metal and in 1904 obtained the patent for a detector of navigation obstacles, called “telemobilskop”. However his idea was not developed because of the technological poorness of that period. Later, in 1922, Guglielmo Marconi agreed with his theory thanks to his experimentations, seeing that radio waves could be used to realize an auxiliary system for navigation by sea, based on the possibility of the radio waves to be reflected by conductive corps (principle discovered and demonstrated by Heinrich Hertz). The principle was firstly used to calculate the dimensions of the ionosphere, while in 1930 there were the first surveys of metallic objects in the field of radio communication. In 1934 the first equipment of continuous waves, with the purpose of detecting objects, was patented by the three Americans Taylor, Young and Hyland. Subsequently the equation of a radar in the open space was calculated thanks also to a Ugo Tiberio’s report to the Italian military authorities; since that moment new funds for the development of these equipment were asked. Unfortunately Tiberio did not obtain the necessary money to make the projects. Meanwhile at the end of 1935, Robert Watson Watt produced the very first prototype of that structure that then would be called radar with the help of the British military authorities. Before the World War II the British developed, built and tested a device called Magnetron, a power oscillator which gave a great boost to the production of the modern radar. In a short time the first American prototype was invented. Moreover both British, French, Americans and Germans tried to use the Radars as defensive systems against air strikes. The first working model had been built by Zoltan Bay in Tungsram, Hungary. At the same time the Italian Navy, which had not believed in Tiberio's project, after the rout of Cape Matapan (March 28-29 1914) because of the use
of the British Navy of the Radar, decided to give Tiberio the funds needed for the appropriate development of this revolutionary technology. Tiberio, who kept working in the Royal Institute of Electrical Engineering for the and Communications in Leghorn, built some models which perfected, up to the working prototype of pulsed radar, later called "Gufo" (1941). The production of this systems was entrusted to the "S.A.F.A.R." factory in Milan, but because of the lack of infrastructure and of specialized personnel, the expected results were not obtained. The World War II gave a boost to the researches in order to find a better resolution and portability for the new defensive needs. During the postwar period the use of the radar became widely distributed also in the civil field for the control of the air and sea traffic, for the weather control and control of car's speed.
References:
En.wikipedia.org
Enac
University of Turin
