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Why physicist Robert Watson-Watt's radio detection system was dismissed as fantasy in 1935 — and how Air Ministry budget cuts killed 26,000 civilians who died waiting for full radar deployment. This World War 2 story reveals how institutional skepticism toward "invisible waves detecting invisible aircraft" delayed Britain's most critical defensive technology during the Battle of Britain.
February 26, 1935. Robert Watson-Watt, Scottish physicist at the National Physical Laboratory, demonstrated radio detection of aircraft near Daventry using BBC transmitters and a cathode ray oscilloscope. Air Ministry observers called it interesting but unproven. They approved £10,000 for prototype development but warned not to expect more funding. The Director of Scientific Research questioned whether invisible radio waves could actually locate enemy bombers in practical military operations.
They were catastrophically wrong.
What Watson-Watt discovered that morning wasn't about radio theory. It was about early warning in a way that contradicted everything air defense planners assumed about acoustic mirrors and ground observers. His Chain Home radar system could detect Luftwaffe formations at 70 miles — enough time to scramble fighters before bombers reached London. What happened between 1935 and 1940 due to gradual funding and incomplete deployment would cost Britain 26,000 civilian lives during the Blitz. And the detection principle Watson-Watt proved would revolutionize warfare in ways no government expected.
This delayed innovation killed thousands before appearing in official doctrine. The principles discovered at Orfordness continue to influence modern air defense networks today.
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