Jim Mueller wrote:

On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 07:55:36 -0500, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Jim Mueller wrote:

On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 12:55:23 -0500, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Has anyone ever seen one of these?

I haven't seen one or even heard of the system that uses it. Perhaps
it was an experimental system that didn't work out. That would mean it
would be VERY hard to get one.

I'm not a pilot, but the idea of flying by seeing a ground-level view
of your situation doesn't strike me as being ideal. I think I would
rather have a view centered on the plane. That would be much harder to
do since it requires a moving map synchronized to the plane's position.


There are a lot of Google hits on it, but it would be obsolete with
today's image processing. It looks like it was designed to help bombers
locate their targets at night.

The Google hits that I found say that it was a landing system. This
one: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/teleran, gives the
approximate date as 1945 - 1950.

If this were conceived as a way to help bombers find their targets, it
doesn't sound like a very good idea. Getting a radar scan of the plane
deep over enemy territory would be rather difficult. And sending a
television picture of it to the plane without the enemy jamming it seems
unlikely. Also, the enemy could view the picture and see exactly where
the plane was (if their own radar hadn't already told them) and determine
what the target was if it were marked on the map.


How about a video camera on the plane, along with the same area's
radar image imposed on the bomber's monitor? Nothing to send to the
plane from the gound, and nothing from the plane to interecept except
the radar signal. By the time that was detected, it would be too late
to react with the ground based weapons of the era.

It would also be useful for a landing system with no real changes
other than the focal length of the camera lens.