FULL CIRCLE : Hitler's Death Ray
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Back in 1935, Hitler spooked the world with rumors of a death ray. Turns out that Hitler's ray-rumor ended up leading scientists to radar. Now, the rumor-turned-radar might be coming full-circle.
By Noah Shachtman, DefenseTech.org
The British government was spooked back in 1935. Not because of Hitler’s air force or his infantry. Because of his death ray.
Newspapers screamed that the Nazis might have a super-weapon that could incinerate living tissue or detonate a bomb at long distance. Flooded by letters begging for a response, the British Air Ministry asked prominent physicist Robert Watson-Watt to see if a radio-wave-based death ray was feasible.
Within ten days Watson-Watt reported that such a weapon was unlikely. But using radio waves to locate an approaching bomber was a real possibility. And that's how radar was born.
Now, seventy years later, the invention may be coming full circle, Aviation Week reports. The Pentagon is actively developing active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars that might be "used as weapons. They are fulfilling the U.S. Air Force's desire for offensive tools that can find enemy threats, accurately identify them and immediately strike."
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http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_DT051012,,00.html