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June 1960 Radio-Electronics
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics.
See articles from Radio-Electronics,
published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Knowledge of the
meteorological
microburst was a very new concept in 1960 when Radio-Electronics
magazine editor Hugo Gernsback penned this column. However, microbursts were not
formally identified until the 1970s by meteorologist
Tetsuya Theodore Fujita,
following his investigation of the 1975 Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 crash. His
research defined them as dangerous, localized downdrafts, leading to improved
aviation safety measures like Doppler radar detection. In his noted fashion,
Mr. Gernsback accurately described the phenomenon and predicted the Doppler
radar technology which would be needed to forewarn pilots of impending danger.
Microbursts are most threatening near the ground where the airplane does not
have enough altitude to fly through it and/or recover from it. So violent are
some microbursts that the downdraft speed is greater than the maximum climb rate
of the airplane, so corrective maneuvers are not possible in time to avoid
ground contact (aka crash).
Recording the Invisible ... Electronics Will Eliminate Future Air Disasters ...
 By Hugo Gernsback
No one has actually ever seen radio or television waves in open space, yet our
radio and TV sets intercept them readily and make them audible to our ears and visible
to our eyes, thanks to modern electronics.
But we are still quite blind to various natural phenomenons which frequently
become disastrous to human lives and for which electronics so far has offered no
solution. Many of these are of a meteorological nature. Because we cannot see air
in motion, we are often totally unprepared for the onslaught of sudden violent wind
gusts, "twisters", and other atmospheric disturbances. True, a rapidly falling barometer
may herald such an event, but there are other peculiar and little understood air
perturbations that no known instrument can record or detect today. And frequently
they are mass killers of humans.
One of these took 63 lives last March when a Lockheed Electra disintegrated in
mid-air, without warning, near Tell City, Ind. Meteorologists are now reasonably
certain that the cause of the disaster can be directly traced to Clear-Air Turbulence
- called CAT by pilots and meteorologists.
According to Dr. Harry Wexler, head and chief of research for the US Weather
Bureau, clear-air turbulence - it can be quite violent - is usually caused by what
is known as wind shear, the effect of two air layers flowing at different speeds
and often in opposite directions. High-speed airplanes nowadays fly at from 15,000
to 40,000 feet altitude, precisely the region of the so-called jet stream which
in mid-latitudes moves at about 250 miles per hour from west to east. Because it
gives planes additional speed to cut their flying time, pilots seek out the jet
stream wherever possible.
But no radar or other instrument in existence today can warn the pilot that he
is approaching a CAT region. This region is close to the jet stream-usually below
it. It may start at any altitude from 15,000 feet up to 40,000, and is of course
quite invisible in a clear and totally cloudless sky. The action of CAT on the unsuspecting
airplane personnel is brief, violent and at times disastrous. It is much like flying
a plane into a 10-foot-thick, rapidly falling wall of water. An airplane, flying
at 500 to 600 miles an hour, can then disintegrate in mid-air.
In the case of the Electra which met disaster near Tell City, the pilot, a few
minutes before he passed the check point, radioed that all was well, no trouble.
Then silence. The disaster came so fast that there was no time for another radio
report. It is probable that, when the plane hit CAT, either one or both of the wings
were ripped off suddenly, breaking up the airliner.
It has been known for some years that there is normally considerable turbulence
below and above the jet stream proper. It may become quite rough on planes, depending
at what angle and where they enter the jet stream. Not all planes, of course, are
demolished or even damaged. But, in all too many cases, passengers not strapped
in their seats have been thrown about the aisles violently and injured.
Unfortunately, there probably will be more disasters to our big jet-prop or jet
planes before we shall have invented and engineered a practical CAT detector. It
seems to us that, for obvious reasons, only electronics can satisfactorily supply
the solution.
Let us state categorically that there exists no physical phenomenon that cannot
eventually be detected by man.
The CAT effect is no exception. We know that ordinary radar is not the answer.
Radar can detect clouds, rain, hail or snow, but not moving air masses. Yet it would
seem that rapidly moving air layers should not only become electrified, but probably
heated. Such rapidly moving atmospheric masses should radiate their energy at a
certain frequency, just as do hydrogen clouds millions of miles distant which can
be detected by radio-astronomy today. The heat effect of the air masses as they
rub against each other - probably quite small - can assuredly be detected in time,
via infrared amplifiers.
By using one or the other means, i.e., radio-astronomy and infrared detection
- or both combined - it should be possible to evolve a compact instrumentality that
can readily be installed in a modern airliner.
By continuously scanning the space ahead, the pilot will have sufficient warning
many miles away as to exactly where the maximum turbulence is located. He can then
take the necessary precautions to avoid the dangerous CAT centers and change his
approach and entry into the jet stream.
We have spoken here of only two eventual approaches of the problem: radio-frequency
and infrared techniques. There certainly must be others, not so obvious. There may
be a static-electric-amplifier solution, or even a barometrical-amplifier means,
among others.
One approach would seem to be obligatory, and that is all the experimental and
exploratory work must be performed in a laboratory airplane. It cannot be done from
terra firma, because of the great speed of the moving air masses as well as their
altitude. The scientists in their meteorological plane must fly with the CAT within
a few miles of its lair to obtain the important data they seek.
This should be an urgent project of the Weather Bureau. It should be
instituted at the earliest possible moment before additional air disasters pile
up on us.
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