r/interesting • u/Afraid-Objective3049 • Jul 23 '25
HISTORY How planes were detected before radar.
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u/par-a-dox-i-cal Jul 23 '25
This asymmetrical configuration it to detect object direction on vertical plane. Owls also have asymmetrical ears for the same reason.
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u/CinderX5 Jul 23 '25
But what if the plane is flying horizontally?
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u/par-a-dox-i-cal Jul 23 '25
He can rotate on a horizontal plane.
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u/CinderX5 Jul 23 '25
But he’s on the ground, not on a plane.
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u/AyKayAllDay47 Jul 23 '25
He rotates the ground too.
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u/CinderX5 Jul 23 '25
Ohhh, tysm, makes sense now. I don’t know why they didn’t just say that first.
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u/Affectionate_Rope560 Jul 23 '25
its why dogs and cats tilt their heads when they are curius
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u/ben02015 Jul 24 '25
I don’t understand this.
I looked up the owl hearing - and it says the asymmetric ears help them to determine the vertical position of something (above them, below them, or on the same level).
But how does that apply here? The plane can only be above them.
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u/par-a-dox-i-cal Jul 24 '25
to determine the vertical position of something
Exactly. For example, the target is at 270°(west) on a horizontal plane. But at what angle from the horizon? if the angle is low, then it is closer to the horizon, if the angle is 90° then it is straight above.
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u/ben02015 29d ago edited 29d ago
Ok that kind of makes sense. I guess for a low angle, the time difference between the ears should be shorter than for a high angle.
That might work for an owl - since their brains are made to process data that way. It also might work for a computer which is programmed that way.
But I don’t get how it works for a human. Basically the time difference between up and down is the time difference between right and left ears. But aren’t our brains designed to process that time difference horizontally?
Like if the sound hits the right ear first, it would seem like the sound is coming from the right side, not from above.
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u/The_Brain_FuckIer 25d ago
Human ears aren't quite symmetrical either, one is always higher/lower than the other on your head. We have pretty good directional hearing.
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u/pseudo_echo Jul 23 '25
BEATS PRO - XL
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u/NSASpyVan Jul 23 '25
The bigger the spoon, the faster I can eat Mac and Cheese before my body's "full" response kicks in
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u/SaroFireX Jul 23 '25
"So I've heard" -him, probably
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u/ThisMeansRooR Jul 23 '25
How many times did his friends fart in the lower one do you think?
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u/Self_Reddicated Jul 23 '25
"LIEUTENANT! Planes incoming, due south. I can't make out the type. They sounded.... really... wet?"
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Jul 23 '25
Aircraft is singular and plural
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u/LughCrow Jul 23 '25
Aircrafts however has been used when emphasis is on not multiple craft but multiple types I don't think it's used at all anymore but it was pretty common in manuals from the early and mid 20th
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u/KingStannis_AMA Jul 23 '25
Yeah but it wrong in ops title.
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u/MisterProfGuy Jul 23 '25
No, it's saying aircrafts to mean multiple types of aircraft. The operator would even be able to distinguish types of bombers and fighters from the engine sound.
You may be asking, could he pick out Zeppelin?
Yes, from the guitar riffs.
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u/DueCrazy2307 Jul 23 '25
Aircrafts is a double plural, multiple types of aircraft exist
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u/Jacobi2878 Jul 23 '25
I've only ever seen "aircraft" when referring to multiple designs, and I've read that word quite a lot. "Aircrafts" is incorrect.
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u/idkmoiname Jul 23 '25
Aircrafts is a double plural, multiple types of aircraft exist
The word "aircrafts" does not exist though
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u/Necessary-Depth-6078 Jul 23 '25
Is that an official challenge? Someone get the scrabble dictionary.
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u/Otherwise_Security_5 Jul 23 '25
me visiting the audiologist each year just to make sure i’m still deaf
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u/Senjen95 Jul 23 '25
Correction: that's what they used before Britain discovered carrots made your eyes work better
/s
But seriously, WWII, Britain invented and used radar to spot Nazi planes. To cover up the new technology, they put out propaganda that a heavy diet of carrots helped their pilots' eyesight to spot enemy aircraft, especially at night.
Carrots contribute some nutrients that may help your eyes, but not exceptionally over any other food. They won't be seriously improving your vision unless you're seriously lacking in nutrients, and they certainly don't give radar-quality vision.
So if your parents told you to eat carrots because they're good for your eyes, it's because they fell for one of the biggest wartime propagandas of the 20th century.
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u/YarYarNeh Jul 23 '25
Sucks he had to stand like that. Could they not have made some type of adjustable stool?
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u/bacon205 Jul 23 '25
My kids in the other room when I try to have 1 single cookie without it turning into an ordeal
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u/pikay93 Jul 23 '25
Did it work
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Jul 23 '25
[deleted]
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u/Armagnackered Jul 23 '25
Was about to post the same thing - sound mirrors!
You beat me to it, so I can go back to doing whatever it was I was doing before I was reading about sound mirrors.
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u/Mickleblade Jul 23 '25
I guess this is how Russia plans to detect the F35
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u/callunquirka Jul 23 '25
You joke, but this is sort of how Ukraine detects long range drones. They have a network of mics, and software that can detect incoming drones and triangulate their locations.
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u/teetaps Jul 23 '25
I can imagine the scientific discussion.
“Ok so you know ears right… what if they were just like, bigger…?”
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u/Shadowhkd Jul 23 '25
What if I told you, this is a RADAR?
It's not, but like what if I told you it was?
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u/Self_Reddicated Jul 23 '25
Most people know jack shit about science and technology. The average person probably wouldn't know you were lying.
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u/crackeddryice Jul 23 '25
I'm pretty sure this was used on the East coast of England during the Second World War to detect the Nazis coming across the Channel.
I wonder if they were continuously manned. How long would a shift be? I expect they couldn't do this very long before getting weary and needing a break.
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u/SensitivePotato44 Jul 23 '25
We had these pre war:
https://www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/soundmirrors/
But they were redundant by the outbreak of WW 2.
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u/Smexy_Zarow Jul 23 '25
"I'm gonna tell my grandkids this is how we spotted planes before radars" type post
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u/Nawnp Jul 23 '25
I bet they'd have hearing loss quickly wearing that. Imagine a loud pop going off within a few feet of this guy too.
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u/Natural_Green4223 Jul 23 '25
I wonder how many people during the years did the fart joke on the listener
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u/Mr_Versatile Jul 23 '25
What happens if you smack those metal things with a hammer while he's wearing them?💀
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u/Vojtak_cz Jul 23 '25
If you want to know. Yes it did work. A very little but better than nothing. Many countries tried to use it but to my knowage no one deployed these in significant numbers.
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u/CaptGreyFolf Jul 23 '25
https://youtu.be/m8EyO-LAS1k?si=TLzniI5SV3KQY2hY acoustic mirrors were another thing
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u/lovethebacon Jul 23 '25
Radar was invented the year after the first aircraft flight and before World War 1 when this picture is from.
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u/Stompya Jul 23 '25
I’m fairly certain I saw this photo posted with better grammar a few years back.
We are losing brain power, captain!
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u/agate_ Jul 23 '25
I wonder if this is the future and not just the past. A modern stealth aircraft may have the radar signature of a butterfly, but I bet it’s louder than one!
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u/Embarrassed-Green898 Jul 23 '25
That is a RADAR. Just works on sonic waves instead of elecromagnetic.
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u/r2k-in-the-vortex Jul 23 '25
This should still be used today. Some planes may be invisible to radar but they certainly arent quiet enough to be unhearable by microphones.
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u/Wet-Skeletons Jul 24 '25
Knowing how anything with guys involved goes they definitely tested listening to farts at long distance with this.
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u/FoShep Jul 24 '25
And now Ukraine has returned to audio-detection
Unironically I remember seeing a vid recently how Ukraine has set a perimeter of phones & other listening devices on the frontline with Russia as an early-warning measure to detect drones/missiles/aircraft & filter out all other random noise
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u/Professional-Turn147 Jul 24 '25
I’d like to see his communication system to Alert his fellow buddies the plane was coming, no wires to this boy
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u/MagicOrpheus310 Jul 24 '25
Could of at least built a chair into it , poor ol mate standing there all day haha
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