Mariner and Coronado with radom

[Romantic Technofreak]

Hi all,

I have questions about Martin Mariner and Consolidated Coronado carrying radar domes. The answers are not given in Wikipedia.

1. When did these aircraft first carry radar domes?

2. Had there been serious repercussions by these domes on speed and range of these aircraft?

3. Were these domes used against enemy aircraft?

4. If the answer to #3 is "no", had there been other installations with capability against enemy aircraft?

Thank you for every answer!

Regards, RT

 

[eagledad]

Hello RT

It appears the link below will answer at least one of your questions (speed)

HyperWar: U.S. Radar: Operational Characteristics [ASV--Air-To-Surface Search Sets]

www.ibiblio.org

FYI

Eagledad

 

[Romantic Technofreak]

Thank you Eagledad. Sorry for being late.

Regards, RT

 

[Viperlead]

Hello RT,

The Dutch PBM-5A Mariners for our Navy (the MLD) carried the APS-31 radar in a teardrop pod above/behind the cockpit. However our Navy did not buy the kit, so our Mariners were never equipped with this radar. The pod could not be removed as the pitot tube was mounted on top of it. Two yagi receiver antennes were mounted at the sides of the cockpit. The Mariner was normally flown with a seven men crew, the radar operator was not carried. The Mariners were build in the year 1948 and were rather worn out when we bought them. We had 17 machines, entering service in 1955-1957. Many accidents occurred with the Mariner, both in the Netherlands as in the New-Guinea area. The remaining eight machines were taken out of service in 1960.
The radar was a Westinghouse X-band radar, an improved AN/APS-30 radar and containing many features of the AN/APS-15. The APS-31 radar antenne scanned through a forward-looking field of view, producing a scope presentation of 160 degrees on a PPI type scope. The radar was a search and navigation radar, 9375 MHz, power 52kW.

Regards, RP.