INVADING PLANES

Evening Star, Issue 20196, 8 June 1929, Page 13

INVADING PLANES

PROTECTIHC CITIES TELEVISION AND NOCTOVISION. LONDON, May 22. Having developed an impenetrable smoke screen to protect British cities from invading airplanes, England has now reversed tho process with combined television and noctovision, in order to see the attacking planes through the densest fog and on the darkest night.’ Noctovision makes use of the invisible infra-red rays which have sixteen times the fog penetrating power of ordinary light. Searchlights sweeping the night skies which _ infra-red beams from strategic observation points will be invisible to airplanes, but by means of a device which is vaguely explained as being similar to television the infrared rays will be converted to ordinary rays. Through these the planes become visible images thrown on a screen so that the position, typo, and number of invaders will be learned. Moreover, this image will be broadcast by television to every airdrome. Planes will immediately take tlie air at the outset of tho enemy’s attack, and before they have had a chance to get near the great cities.

it is also stated that noctovision can he applied to individual airplanes. Night combat planes equipped with this device possess insuperable advantages over planes unable to penetrate the darkness The device is also useful for naval battles for making it possible to see through the fog and smoke screens. A peace-time use that is envisaged is to prevent such accidents as the one which recently happened to the liner Paris when it struck tho Eddystone rock in a dense fog. ft is understood that experiments will soon be tried of transmitting views seen at night by noctovision apparatus from New York to London. However, this does not mean that Americans will be let into the secret, for it is the British Government’s intention to keep the valuable discovery strictly to itself as long as possible.