Ernst Ludwig Kramar

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Ernst Ludwig Kramar (born June 15, 1902 in Kladno near Prague , Austria-Hungary , † October 8, 1978 ) was a German electrical engineer and inventor and a pioneer of radio navigation .

While working for C. Lorenz AG , he developed the Consol flight navigation system under the name "Elektra" or "Sonne" . Previously, he had constructed the so-called Lorenzbake, the first ultrashort wave- based instrument landing system (ILS), which was installed and successfully used in airports around the world in the 1930s.

Life

After attending secondary school from 1912 to 1920, Kramar studied at the German Technical University in Prague until 1925 and obtained his diploma as an electrical engineer. He wrote his dissertation on "Frequency multiplication by iron converters" at the Institute Professor Backhausen of the Technical University of Dresden and was awarded a Dr.-Ing. PhD. Subsequently, on January 1, 1917, he took on a position as development engineer for "wireless technology" at C. Lorenz AG , Berlin .

His first work was the development of synchronized radio transmission stations and from 1930 radio navigation and radio landing systems became his specialty. He relied on radio beacons with rotating antennas and developed a control beam system using two transmitters set up at an angle to one another, based on the principle described and patented by Otto Scheller for C. Lorenz in 1907 and 1916. At the Berlin-Tempelhof airport in 1932 Kramar set up a transmitter arrangement known as an “ultra-short wave radio landing light” (LFF) or Lorenzbake and successfully demonstrated its function a year later. From then on it was also known as the "Lorenz System" and was installed at around 38 airports around the world by 1938. It was the first instrument landing system (ILS) to be implemented entirely using ultra-short waves . The high frequency of 33.33 MHz gave it decisive advantages, especially compared to the system developed at the same time for medium wave in the United States . The latter had significantly greater difficulties with interference from transmitter stations in the neighborhood or in bad weather than the Lorenz system. Walter Hahnemann as Technical Director of C. Lorenz AG had already made the suggestion to use a shorter wavelength .

From 1934 to 1945 Kramar headed the radio navigation department, which dealt with the further development of landing aids and radio direction finding systems for recognizing the correct flight direction when landing or approaching a target. In 1938 he received an award from the Otto Lilienthal Society for his special services in the field of radio landing systems. From 1939 he expanded his research to include long-range navigation systems. The basis was his “Elektra” system, which was introduced in 1936. On behalf of the German Aviation Research Institute , he transferred the basic principles to long-wave transmitters , which resulted in the “Sun” radio beacon system. It was introduced in 1940 and was soon copied by the Allied forces. It remained in use under the name Consol after the end of World War II until the 1980s.

From 1945 to 1953 Kramar worked on behalf of C. Lorenz AG in Landshut for the American military administration in post-war Germany. After the ban on developing navigation systems was lifted, he took over responsibility for the relevant corporate division again in 1949. In addition, he was head of the specialist committee for "radio location" ( radar ) of the Telecommunications Society (NTG).

From 1953 he received the title of director for the field of radio-based navigation aids at C. Lorenz . The main focus of his research from 1955 was the use of ultra-short waves and the Doppler effect for high-precision radio beacons and direction finding devices.

He gave lectures as a lecturer at the Technical University of Stuttgart and at the University of Karlsruhe . The latter also awarded him an honorary professorship . He celebrated his 40th professional anniversary at Standard Elektrik Lorenz (SEL), in which C. Lorenz AG was merged in 1958. Even in retirement, he continued to work for the company as a scientific consultant.

Services

The work of Ernst Ludwig Kramar has been honored with more than 80 patents and numerous publications in German as well as other language technical journals.

In 1962, Kramar was awarded a gold medal of honor by the German Society for Positioning and Navigation for its contribution to radio direction finding and navigation. He was also a 1964 winner of the by the IEEE Professional Technical Group on Aerospace and Navigational Electronics awarded Pioneer Award . A year later he also received the Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow Award from the Institute of Navigation in Manassas , Virginia .

Works

  • News about single-wave telephony. In: Journal for Technical Physics. Volume 10, No. 11, 1929, p. 525.
  • with Hans Jakobshaben: Bad weather landing using ultrashortwave radio beacons. In: Zeitschrift für Flugtechnik und Motorluftschriffahrt. Volume 24, No. 18, 1933.
  • The navigation of airplanes with radio beacons. In: Yearbook of German Aviation Research. 1935.
  • The application of the Doppler principle in radio location and navigation (= special library for radio location ). German Society for Positioning and Navigation 1963.
  • The application of impulse technology in radio navigation. In: Impulse technology. (= Series of lectures by the external institute of the Technical University of Berlin-Charlottenburg ). Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1956, pp. 156-175.
  • with W. Feyer: The Doppler rotary radio beacon. Decisive improvement in mid-range navigation. In: Interavia, magazine for aerospace. Born in 1968, No. 2, p. 180 ff.
  • The history of radio landing devices. In: Interavia, magazine for aerospace. Volume 27, Issue 3, 1972, pp. 246–248.
  • with H. Hart: radio systems for location and navigation. Berliner Union and W. Kohlhammer, 1973, pp. 248-255.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frequency, Zeitschrift für Schwingungs- und Schwachstromtechnik , Volumes 31–32, Schiele and Schön 1977, p. 336.
  2. ↑ a b Short biography as co-author of: 75 Years Lorenz 1880–1955. Commemorative publication by C. Lorenz AG on the company's anniversary, Stuttgart 1955, p. 267.
  3. ^ Pioneer Award past recipients list . List of award winners on IEEE-AESS.org, accessed October 23, 2015.
  4. ^ Colonel Thomas L. Thurlow Award . List of award winners on ION.org, accessed October 23, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Kramar, Ernst Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German electrical engineer
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Kladno near Prague , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1978