1 Abstract Some historical and technical aspects of radio navigation, in Germany, over the period 1907 to 1945 Radio navigation, in the broad sense, has become of the utmost importance since the end of the 1930s. Warfare, without navigation by radio signals is, today, nearly unthinkable. It is therefore useful to look back in history to get some understanding as to how, why and when, some aspects of this technology came into being. Navigation by radio as an aid has been practised in Germany since 1907. Scheller invented the complimentary dot - dash guiding path, which can be seen as a 'landmark' for several decades of navigational aids. Some aspects of the Lorenz civil 'Blind - Approach' apparatus and several technical details of the relentless Beams over Britain will also be discussed as will the principles behind Sonne (or Consol) used for long distance navigation and some other related subjects. Arthur O. Bauer Diemen, 26 December 2004 The Netherlands Stgcdv&
[email protected] Introduction Already in the early days of the German wireless industry, it was Telefunken (fifty-fifty shared (owned) by AEG and Siemens & Halske) and C. Lorenz (the latter hereafter to be called Lorenz), who dominated Germany's market. The latter company was owned, since May 1930, by the American ITT company and, after WW II this company was also known as: - Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL). Around 1990 it was finally sold to the French Alcatel company. From the beginning of the Wireless industry, the German government was keen to keep both major companies in business, to avoid the possibility of the internal market becoming one company's monopoly.