A brief history of Luftwaffe electronics - from radio to radar in the valve era

We survey the most significant advances in German aviation electronics - or avionics - from the first steps of airborne radiotelegraphy in 1917 to beam navigation, onboard radar and sophisticated tactical VHF vox radio communication in the last days of WW2. (In a hurry? See the index below and jump straight to the instrument that interests you) Our survey takes the form of a detailed grand tour around one of Europe's finest collections of German valve-era avionics, covering communications, navigation and combat. Over several decades Dieter Beikirch has assembled one of the world's largest and most comprehensive private collections of German avionic instruments produced during and after the First World War until the early 1960s and the end of the valve era. The second world war lasted six years and one day and marked one of the worst periods of tragedy and cruelty in human history. But the intense conflict spurred invention and accelerated the birth of much of the technology that defines our modern world. Most of the collection's most important specimens originated during the years of intense conflict during the Second World War. Dieter's collection extends to well over 80 complete and immaculately restored systems; in this walking tour, we show you over 30 of the most important. 00:00 Intro 00:11 Our intentions 01:25 Telefunken D4 spark-gap transceiver 03:48 Telefunken 378 valve transceiver 03:59 The rise of the Luftwaffe 05:01 FuG VII first tactical VOX 05:20 Telefunken Stat. 1001 bF 05:39 FuG III 09:57 FuG 10 transeiver system 17:14 FuG 17 10 watt VHF transeiver 18:50 FuG 16 the standard radio (with Peilfuf DF) 24:46 FuG 16 ZY 28:25 101 N Telefunken ground DF with HE1 receiver 30:00 Peil G IV 33:04 Peil V 36:24 Peil VI 38:53 German vs American DF 39:14 Lorenz FuBI 2 Blind Landing Sys. 43:03 Fus AN 726, FuG 125 "Talking Beacon" 44:07 Sea Rescue systems 45:40 X-system (Wotan I) with X clock 49:13 Knickebein "Crooked leg" 50:20 Wotan II with Y method ranging 54:39 The Y method explained 56:44 Course Control 56:55 Siemens K4 electro-pneumatic CCS 58:14 Horizontmutter horizon display and autopilot 1:00:14 FuG 101 fine alt. FuG 102 Course alt. 1:04:34 Naxos FuG 350 Z vs HS2 1:07:58 Neptune FuG 217 rear attack warning 1:12:17 FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN2 1:21:15 Hohentwiel FuG 200 ship hunter 1:28:17 Würzburg and Chamois IFF sys. 1:30:56 FuG 25a IFF transponder 1:32:50 BZA-Stuvi dive bombing computer 1:37:33 BZA synchro (Selsyn) remote control sys. 1:43:43 Henschel Radio Control for Hs293 and Fritz-X 1:55:39 Hs293 D TV guided version 1:56:53 coming attractions! 1:57:11 The electronics of the V2 rocket 1:57:26 End credits Please see our back catalogue for longer and more detailed treatments of some of the instruments listed above. Presented by Dieter Beikirch and Robert J Dalby. Special thanks to Reiner Sigmund for his assistance in the making of the Hs293 video. The two still showing the Hs293 in the introduction are from Wikipedia and the full credit reads: Deutsches Museum Munich photo Jean-Patrick Donzey Video produced by Astronomy and Nature TV 2023 all rights reserved