HEIGHT FINDER

A 'height finder' is a ground based aircraft altitude measuring device.

Contents

Technology

Optical

Radar

See also

References

External links

Technology

Early 'height finder' implementations were optical devices and later migrated to radar devices. Devices combining both optics and radar were deployed by the United States Navy^[1].

Optical

In WWII, a 'height finder' was a stereoscopic optical device used to determine the altitude of an aircraft (actually the distance from the emplacement), used to direct anti-aircraft guns^[2]. Examples of American and Japanese^[3] versions exist, certainly a German and Russian version exist.

Radar

A 'height finder' is a type of 2-dimensional radar that measures altitude and direction of targets^[4], but ''not'' their distance from the radar. Such systems often complement 2-dimensional radars which find distance and direction (search radar), thus using 2 2-dimensional systems to obtain a 3-dimensional aerial picture.
Modern radar sets have 3-dimensional capability making height finder radars largely obsolete.

See also

★ Radar

References

1. Anti-Aircraft Fire Control Sets
2. Status Update for the M2 Height Finder Project
3. Japanese Height Finder
4. AN/FPS-6, 6A, 6B & AN/MPS-14

External links

★ A page about a type of height finders found in surface-to-air missile sites (German)