P-38 wing mounted infrared laser used for tower ID during approach and landing in the pacific theater during WW2

[MaicoDoug]

Hello fellow pilots and aircraft aficionados -

This is my first posting as I'm out to gather information about a solution that was integrated into the wing of the P-38 during WWII.

Late in the war the story starts with the request of the tower traffic controllers in the Guam and secluded smaller aircraft installations in that area to develop a solution for halting and thus stopping these rouge nightly enemy intrusions. Seems that often at night, there were Japanese zero pilots who were thwarting the US installations, airbases in the pacific theaters by preforming touch & go maneuvers on our airbase. On our own runways no less!

So the story goes from the company where I used to work of whom invented a solution that allowed our aircraft to be identified during the final line up to the runway. It was the product that my company started with, the invention of an infrared wing mounted laser that would identify itself to the tower by viewing the invisible light source. Apparently it worked well enough and thus the trap was set to catch a few zeros playing cat & dog at night. The company that invented the technology was Lackmann Electro Optics, Jim Lackmann, the inventor specifically.

What I'm attempting to discover is a publication, and reference to substantiate this. To be offered up to a group of military aircraft veterans who are eager to be consulted on in the form of a "on the air quiz" for use during an amateur radio meeting (net) over shortwave radio who meet each day on 14.290 Mhz USB. At 3PM (GMT), 10AM CST. The group is known as "The Airforces Flyers Club Net".

Any information on how the airfield staff stopped the Japanese zeros from disrespecting the tower controllers by preforming their touch & go night time maneuvers would be greatly appreciated.

The developed 1 meter folded cavity IR Laser was later re-invented into a new medical device called a "surgical laser" Used to cut tissue and cauterize at the same time.

Thumbs up from an ole B-52 Crew Chief-
Doug
73
WB1E

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Hiya Doug, Carswell firefighter here.

 

[SaparotRob]

Welcome MaicoDoug. That's an interesting subject and I'd like to hear more about it. I didn't even know lasers existed before the 1960's. I'm looking forward to conversation about it by the knowledgeable of this Forum.
I do know the B-52 is an awesome airplane. I wouldn't be alone in enjoying your stories and pictures of the B-52.

 

[wuzak]

I didn't even know lasers existed before the 1960's.

According to Wikipedia, the first functional laser was operated in 1960.

 

[Snautzer01]

Infrared would be more likely.

 

[MaicoDoug]

Good morning,

Acknowledged. Thanks for the replies.

This was a folded "Z" soldered ceramic sandwich. A bed of machined ceramic with a thin lid of the same material soldered closed with bending mirrors and the main mirrors at each end. 1 inch x 6 inch x 14 inches long. RF waveguide excited CO2 gas laser. I do understand that the common known technology named as the "LASER" was publicly demonstrated in the early 60s. My company had bought up the original company in 1987, Coherent Inc.

Below are some early references

>December 1958: Invention of the Laser

Tune in, enter 14.290Mhz at 10am CST for the net.
>http://websdr4.sdrutah.org:8904/index1a.html

Note about the B-52, it's still classified!

More soon. I may have to contact some of my old cohorts. It's great to be here & glad I flew in.

Best, Doug

 

[cvairwerks]

Only reference I could find, was to Laakmann Electro-optics. It was formed in 1978 by Peter Laakmann and Kathrine Crothall, who I assumed married Peter at some point in time, due to names on various patents. The Z fold CO2 laser was first patented in 1979 by Peter and Kathrine.

 

[manta22]

Hello fellow pilots and aircraft aficionados -

This is my first posting as I'm out to gather information about a solution that was integrated into the wing of the P-38 during WWII.

Late in the war the story starts with the request of the tower traffic controllers in the Guam and secluded smaller aircraft installations in that area to develop a solution for halting and thus stopping these rouge nightly enemy intrusions. Seems that often at night, there were Japanese zero pilots who were thwarting the US installations, airbases in the pacific theaters by preforming touch & go maneuvers on our airbase. On our own runways no less!

So the story goes from the company where I used to work of whom invented a solution that allowed our aircraft to be identified during the final line up to the runway. It was the product that my company started with, the invention of an infrared wing mounted laser that would identify itself to the tower by viewing the invisible light source. Apparently it worked well enough and thus the trap was set to catch a few zeros playing cat & dog at night. The company that invented the technology was Lackmann Electro Optics, Jim Lackmann, the inventor specifically.

What I'm attempting to discover is a publication, and reference to substantiate this. To be offered up to a group of military aircraft veterans who are eager to be consulted on in the form of a "on the air quiz" for use during an amateur radio meeting (net) over shortwave radio who meet each day on 14.290 Mhz USB. At 3PM (GMT), 10AM CST. The group is known as "The Airforces Flyers Club Net".

Any information on how the airfield staff stopped the Japanese zeros from disrespecting the tower controllers by preforming their touch & go night time maneuvers would be greatly appreciated.

The developed 1 meter folded cavity IR Laser was later re-invented into a new medical device called a "surgical laser" Used to cut tissue and cauterize at the same time.

Thumbs up from an ole B-52 Crew Chief-
Doug
73
WB1E

Doug;

Lasers did not exist in WW II but infrared devices did exist. The most well known was probably the "Sniperscope" mounted on an M1 Carbine. It consisted of an incandescent lamp with a sharp cut-off optical filter that let IR pass but was opaque to visible light- you could not see this lamp with your eyes but that IR was visible to its early-generation IR scope. My guess is that the "lasers" were Sniperscope lamps mounted on a P-38... if this story is true at all.

 

[pbehn]

I think there were quite a few experiments with various "beams" to keep planes on a glide path down to the runway.

 

[Snautzer01]

Laser as i understand it is way beyond some dude in a shack fencing off some Zeros. There might have been a clever light system aka Royal navy carriers but beamed laser light seems too much.

 

[pbehn]

Laser as i understand it is way beyond some dude in a shack fencing off some Zeros. There might have been a clever light system aka Royal navy carriers but beamed laser light seems too much.

As per another thread, laser beams are just what you dont need to be looking at when coming into land. Infra Red is different, below the visible spectrum. Below infra red you go into micro waves then radio waves. Above ultra violet you go into ionising radiation. Electromagnetic spectrum - Wikipedia

 

[mjfur]

and what about all of the other American aircraft not equipped with "laser or infra red"? Mistaken for Zero's and shot down?

The story seems a bit far fetched, Zero's doing touch and go's? Sounds like 1977 TV's Black Sheep Squadron material.
I'm guessing Guam probably had radar to see what was coming their way. Are they confusing infra red with I.F.F.?

 

[ThomasP]

There were several IR devices used on aircraft during WWII for IFF purposes. I do not know the names of the systems, but Bomber Command used one variant over Germany that allowed the bombers to recognize the Mosquito night fighters so they would know not to shoot at them. There was also a version created for night time ops on the British carriers, and subsequently a similar system adopted by the USN for carrier night fighter ops. None of the systems used lasers, only somewhat focused 'landing light' arrangements at the most. Basically the gunners and carrier (or tower?) personnel would have low power monoculars/binoculars with IR filters that allowed them to see the IR light source on the aircraft.

 

[manta22]

There were several IR devices used on aircraft during WWII for IFF purposes. I do not know the names of the systems, but Bomber Command used one variant over Germany that allowed the bombers to recognize the Mosquito night fighters so they would know not to shoot at them. There was also a version created for night time ops on the British carriers, and subsequently a similar system adopted by the USN for carrier night fighter ops. None of the systems used lasers, only somewhat focused 'landing light' arrangements at the most. Basically the gunners and carrier (or tower?) personnel would have low power monoculars/binoculars with IR filters that allowed them to see the IR light source on the aircraft.

No binoculars with filters will be able to see IR, you needed an image converter tube back in those days.

 

[ThomasP]

I am just using the term in the description of the system. They used the term 'filter' for both Bomber Command system and British carrier systems.

Maybe that is how the British referred to the converter tube back then?

 

[MIflyer]

In WWII they found that UV light could not be seen by normal people but could be seen by people who had cataracts removed. So such people, often elderly, were recruited for jobs where seeing otherwise invisible UV light was useful. An example would be a submarine making contact with an agent or resistance group on a hostile shore. The people on the shore could signal with UV light and no one but the special UV viewer personnel could detect it.

 

[Airframes]

An infra red light source can be viewed using an infra red "pass", or viewing filter. These were available to Allied forces as a "Wratten" filter from Kodak (USA) and Kodak Ltd in the UK, and were still in use up to at least the early 1990's. I last saw them in the Kodak (staff) catalogue before I left the company in November, 1991.
Such a filter was fitted to, for example, the AGLT gun turrets on later Lancasters, in order that the detection system linked to the gunsight could identify IR emissions from the "Z" equipment (IR lamps) in the nose of other Lancaster aircraft.
Infra red use was relatively common in the later part of WW2, particularly in Europe, with such items as the German IR sniper scope and IR lamp, and the "Vampir" system on Panther tanks, for example, as well as IR systems and binoculars on both Allied and Luftwaffe night fighters.
Even in the 1980s, IR lamps were still used on, as an example, the British "Chieftain" tank, when the driver and commander, at least, would use IR viewing goggles.

It is most probable that the equipment mentioned in the original post was IR, and not laser.

 

[manta22]

An infra red light source can be viewed using an infra red "pass", or viewing filter. These were available to Allied forces as a "Wratten" filter from Kodak (USA) and Kodak Ltd in the UK, and were still in use up to at least the early 1990's. I last saw them in the Kodak (staff) catalogue before I left the company in November, 1991.
Such a filter was fitted to, for example, the AGLT gun turrets on later Lancasters, in order that the detection system linked to the gunsight could identify IR emissions from the "Z" equipment (IR lamps) in the nose of other Lancaster aircraft.
Infra red use was relatively common in the later part of WW2, particularly in Europe, with such items as the German IR sniper scope and IR lamp, and the "Vampir" system on Panther tanks, for example, as well as IR systems and binoculars on both Allied and Luftwaffe night fighters.
Even in the 1980s, IR lamps were still used on, as an example, the British "Chieftain" tank, when the driver and commander, at least, would use IR viewing goggles.

It is most probable that the equipment mentioned in the original post was IR, and not laser.

If the IP wavelength is too long to be seen by the human eye, no filter will make it visible. Wratten gel filters made by Kodak have been around for a long time but they do not make IR visible.

 

[ThomasP]

Could they have been using the 1940s equivalent of a transmissive IR sensor card? Or possibly a split-path optical scope with a reflective IR sensor card?

 

[manta22]

Could they have been using the 1940s equivalent of a transmissive IR sensor card? Or possibly a split-path optical scope with a reflective IR sensor card?

Very doubtful; those are so insensitive that they would be useless in that application.