Re: OT: "Warplane" Documentary Starts This Week on PBS

In article <31o0l2t3rr6l37llgud6btut477bjb89k0@xxxxxxx>,
OM <om@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
reportedly experimenting with the wedgies back in WWII with a couple
of B-29's in hopes of at least reducing the cross-section enough to at
least play some havok with the German radar returns. The story is that
it happened really late in the war, and by the time they got anywhere
towards getting any positive results both sides of the war were over.

People often don't realize just how sophisticated the electronic war over
Europe was getting by, say, mid-1944. I think it was Bill Gunston who
observed that late-WW2 RAF Bomber Command aircraft carried an array of ECM
systems that -- allowing for changes in technology and wavelength -- would
make those of most modern combat aircraft look grossly inadequate. ECM
has an unfortunate tendency to be expensive, and it doesn't seem sexy (not
least because details are often highly classified), so there's a great
temptation among budget planners and legislators to skimp on it as a way
to afford more aircraft.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. | henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
.

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