EKCO Ground-controlled Approach Radar at Southend Airport

After Bernard Collins was appointed as manager of Southend Municipal Airport in 1946, he was tasked with developing it into an airport with International potential, despite having a very limited budget and a shortage of materials. The pressure was on after the airport's licence to operate commercially was issued on 31st December of that year, but was far from attracting airlines to the airfield with only daytime flights available and evening landings only made possible by the manual lighting of gooseneck flares along the runways. It needed a ground-controlled approach radar system that the larger airports around the country were almost taking for granted, but with very limited funds available, Collins approached Eric Cole of the EKCO company at Southend for help in providing a fully functional talk-down system for a fraction of the going costs.

Notes:
1. The Berlin Blockade of 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949 was one of the first major international Cold War crises. The Soviets under the leadership of Stalin attempted to gain overall control of a weakened Germany by blocking the Western Forces access to Berlin, and subsequently ceased to supply food to the civilian population in the non-Soviet sectors of Berlin. But on 30 November 1945, the Western Allies decided that there would be three twenty-mile-wide air corridors providing uninhibited access to Berlin supply the citizens with the food and fuel that they required; it was impossible for the Soviets to claim that cargo aircraft posed a military threat. In total there were 2,326,406 tons of food and supplies on 278,228 total flights to Berlin. Ground Controlled Approach was greatly improved as a necessity for the aircraft to land in Berlin, and our air traffic control system is a direct development of that technology.
2. Tegel airfield only became operable during the Berlin Airlift on 16 December 1948 after the Soviet-controlled radar tower had been blown up by dynamite by the French under orders from General Jean Ganeval.
3. The system at Southend had to routinely checked, and while there were set protocols for alignment checking, it was not unknown one of the local (friendly) helicopter pilots to hover directly above a certain phone box, which happened to be directly on the centre line of 06 runway about 1 mile distant.
4. In the A-scope, a sawtooth voltage generator attached to the X-axis moves the spot across the screen, whereas in the PPI, the output of two such generators is used to rotate the line around the screen. This could be switched from QTE (True Bearing From) to QDM (Magnetic Bearing From). 5. The EKCO film a copy of the recording made by the EKCO Film Unit of the visit to Southend Airport by the Mayor of Coventry and a delegation to view the Airport equipment c1960 was rescued from a rubbish bin when the works closed down in 1971. It remained on a garage shelf for the best part of 25 years before being converted to VHS and more recently to DVD.

Sources:
Flight, 15 February 1952
Time Magazine, 29 December 1952.
Ted O’Flynn via Pam O’Flynn
Keith Donetta
Dave Smith

Footage:
EKCO Airfield Equipment
https://creativecommons.org/publicdom...
Berlin Airlift Short via VideoPlayback.

Photos:
AN/MPN1 Precision Approach Radar (PAR/GCA) for RAF Honily courtesy of Island Images
http://www.island-images.co.uk/ATC/zR...
Type 14 CHEL/GCI Radar courtesy of Subbrit
C-54 landing at Tempelhof Airport in 1948 by Henry Ries (USAF) USGOV-PD
C-47s at Tempelhof Airport in 1948 from the U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation
de Havilland DH.80A Puss Moth (G-ABKZ) EAFS at Ringway on 11 June 1948 by RuthAS
Swansea EKCO Approach Aid courtesy of
https://atchistory.wordpress.com/
Hawker Hunter F.58 J-4083 with an EKCO Radar Ranging ARI 5820 by James Thomas
Miles M.57 Aerovan 4 (G-AJKM), operated by East Anglian Flying Services by Maurice (Flickr)
Handley Page Halifax Mk VIII (G-AKEC) at Ringway on 18 February 1950 by RuthAS
Handley Page H.P.70 Halton (G-AIAP) by skylarkair
https://www.flickr.com/photos/skylark...
EKCO Frontage 1947 courtesy of Sebastian MontjellySouthend Airport by Mrs. A. Chafer
St. Lawrence Church, Eastwoodbury Lane, 2013 by Big Viking (Flickr)
Other photos by the Author