A.D. Blumlein-an electronics genius

25 years ago, on the 7th June 1942, British electronics suffered a cruel blow. Among the many who were dying, a small party of engineers perished, but those few men enshrined some of the finest creative design talent - many would not hesitate to say genius - in the world. They had been testing a prototype of airborne radar H2S in flight, and the aircraft crashed on landing; there were no survivors. Among those killed were: G.S. Hensby, Sqdn. Ldr. R.J. Sanson, Pilot Officer C.E. Vincent, C.O. Browne, F. Blythen and Alan Dower Blumlein. Of course, it was kept quiet. British radar techniques, far in advance of those of the Axis powers, had been one of the foremost factors in saving Britain during the dark days of 1940. It was essential to keep the lead and stop any suggestion of a setback reaching the enemy intelligence. So only the bare fact of Blumlein´s death was announced, with no detail at all.