RE8 wireless installation

[MikeW]

Did RE8s trail their wireless aerials (antenna) behind them when working an artillery shoot?

I have come across a reference to escorting camels being forced close to the RE8s by low cloud and having trouble avoiding the aerials.


Mike

[Darryl]

Did RE8s trail their wireless aerials (antenna) behind them when working an artillery shoot?

Mike,
in a word yes. I am at work and don't have exact details but if memory serves they were about 20ft long and had a two pound weight on the end. Just the thing to use as a hood ornament for the stylish Camel pilot!!

They were wound in and out on a roll.

More later

regards

Darryl

Attached is a picture of an Australian RE.8 and its pilot.

Circled you will see the aerial weight hanging below the aircraft.

He is another thing I found (on the C&C site IIRC).

I think the drawing was done by Juanita Franzi, a delightful lady I had the pleasure of meeting once, who knows a heap about aeroplanes.

[MikeW]

Thanks Spinner,

excellent answer(s)!


Mike

[Darryl]

Maximum aeriel length prescribed by the RFC seems to have been 150ft. This would probably equate to a 90 metre wave-length by my somewhat novice calculations. 70 Metre is still common today.

Somewhere I have a list of all the radios used by the RFC with technical specifications for each. I'll try on the weekend to find it if you are even remotely interested.

regards

Darryl

[Darryl]

I should have mentioned that they were a major hazard to defensive manoevring and that I have seen reference to them being cut but not to any "quick release" system.

There were also no guarantees that a crew would remember to retract them...the trees around Biggin Hill becoming at one stage "so festooned with wires" that men were ordered to climb the trees and retrieve them.

Darryl

[Lufbery]

I should have mentioned that they were a major hazard to defensive manoevring and that I have seen reference to them being cut but not to any "quick release" system.

Darryl,

That's pretty funny, but I sense a missed opportunity. Our intrepid RE8 pilots could, Top Gun style, slow down, let the bad guy get close, and then foul his prop with the wireless antenna.

Seriously, though, am I correct in assuming that wireless sets in other planes would also have trailing antennas?

Regards,

[MikeW]

Darryl,

this is fascinating stuff, I'd not heard of it before, and not seen anything mentioned here. Can I assume the Germans also trailed wavelength aerials, or were their radio engineers more advanced in antenna development.


Drew,

I must admit the same thought occurred to me.



Mike

[Darryl]

slow down, let the bad guy get close, and then foul his prop with the wireless antenna.

I have it on good authority that trenches were zig-zagged specifically to stop Art Obs aeroplanes flying along them "donking" soldiers on the head with aerial weights. :

To continue obscurum per obscurius, grapling hooks were tried early on against other aeroplanes. The timing required being beyond even the most avid aviators. To fly slowly and in a straight line, dangling an aerial with malice and forethought at an enemy aircraft 151 ft away, dead astern....well........

As to German airborne radio antennae...I am not sure but would assume so. Broadly speaking an antenna should be 1/2 the wave-length. Modern ones must achieve this by means other than stringing a wire for 45 metres in a lot of cases, but not sure how.

IIRC Gunnar had particular interest in German Wireless and he may be able to speak authoritatively on that score.

I'll see what I can dig up. I recall seeing an Avro Anson with a large aerial shaped as a diamond from nose to wingtips to tail. I suspect this was a "directional" though, not an attempt to create length.

More to come

Darryl