KEY POINTS:
Keith Wood, scientist. Died aged 91.
Keith Wood was a member of the small team of elite scientists responsible for developing airborne radar, which played a crucial role in World War II.
Later, he turned his attention to the development of an automatic blind landing system for aircraft.
In 1935 Wood joined the six-man team at the Air Ministry Research Station at Bawdsey, Suffolk. It was investigating the airborne use of radio direction finding, soon to be known as radar.
Wood and a colleague were responsible for designing and building a suitable special receiver while other team members concentrated on the transmitter.
In 1937 their rudimentary radar receiver was installed in an old Heyford bomber. Flying over the sea towards Felixstowe, he was thrilled to see on his instruments returns from the sea and reflections from coastal buildings.
Further flights followed until the team could claim they had developed the world's first transmit/receive pulse radar operating from an aircraft in flight. By the summer a basic air-to-surface vessel (ASV) radar had been developed.
Wood was aboard an Anson flying at 10,000ft as it approached a naval exercise. At the equipment's maximum range of 16km Wood saw a large echo was detected on his screen - from the aircraft carrier Courageous.
Smaller radar echoes also appeared, and the Anson's pilot reported that the carrier's aircraft were approaching. This proved to be the first air-to-air pulse radar contact, and under almost true operational conditions.
There was one further twist to this remarkable flight. The weather had deteriorated and the cloud base was less than 90m.
Using the experimental radar, Wood was able to obtain a "fix" from the Skunk lightship and "home" the pilot to the mouth of the Deben River, eventually landing safely under conditions that would not normally have been possible. The naval exercise had been cancelled.
Wood continued with the development of airborne radars and was invited to America to assist with the development of long-range radar aerials for the Catalina flying boat.
His wartime work led to his appointment as head of the guidance section of the Blind Landing Experimental Unit in late 1945, exploring radio options for accurate flight path guidance to enable safe landings to be made in all weathers.
In 1957 Wood joined the Atomic Weapon Research Establishment as superintendent of trials facility at Orfordness. As well as conducting nuclear trials, he devised "home produced" aerials to track Russian Sputniks and to monitor French nuclear activity in North Africa.
Ten years later he was Deputy Chief Scientific Officer and the first director of All Weather Operations in Civil Aviation.
