Robert Cockburn was born in Portsmouth, England back in 1909. Educated at Southern Secondary School and Portsmouth Municipal College. We worked as a science teacher while attending the University of London receiving his PhD in 1939.
He joined the Air Ministry in 1940, where he worked on ground-to-air communication systems. Retiring in 1969 as the Director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment. He was awarded the OBE in 1946 and 1947, the US Medal of Merit and in 1953 was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, receiving a knighthood in 1960.
Well now you may be asking yourself what in the world did he do to be so recognized. In 1940, he set up a team to work on radio countermeasures. It was known as the Battle of the Beams. The object was to jam the German navigation beams thus reducing their capability to find their target over Britain. He also developed devices to fool or jam enemy radar, which reduced the losses by the Royal Air Force bombers. He went on the develop what we know as chaff, which was small bundles of metal strips that caused a radar echo similar to that of a bomber aircraft. It caused the enemy to use valuable aircraft and fuel to find nothing but empty airspace.
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