Dean

Yes it was FIDO using heat from petrol burners (coke was tried as well) and a sonic method was another of the fundamentally different approaches. There was another disadvantage with using gasoline or Diesel, visualise it.

Any idea of the other methods attempted? Fog is composed of small water droplets, so think of the methods you would normally use to get rid of condensation or moisture/humidity

The only ways would be to force the water to condense even more, (to fall as rain). This might have been accomplished by seeding the area in the hopes of causing rain. The problems is that I have found some references to seeding, but none of them state that it was actually tried as a method of dispersing fog. Another method would have been dehumidification, but in order to accomplish that, you would have had to have built a wall to stop more humid air from flowing in. (a very expensive proposition) I have found no references regarding this.

Other than that, you would have to have raised the ambient temperature of the air in the vicinity of the runway to cause the fog to "burn" off. As I stated, burners were used for this, and a fuel-air explosion or popping a nuke would have done the job quite nicely. However, both of these methods would probably (FAE) or definitely (nuke) destroyed the airfield in question, making fog removal a moot point!

I'll keep on looking for a bit...

Dean.

Dean

You are thinking along the correct lines, dehumidification can be accomplished in two simple ways, those are the two out of the three other methods attempted. Seeding was not on my list.

I know this should be about WW2 history rather than a physics lesson so we better move on soon.

well, Ive searched about a bit more, and then I lost a day because my internet provider crashed for 20 hours. In the interests of moving things along, I will now officially give up.



I really hate doing that!!!!!


Dean.

Monty

You had more or less answered the last part of the question by saying dehumidification.

Air conditioning systems do this by blowing the air over a cooling coil so the water condenses out or freezes on the coil, as the air is remixed or heated the overall relative and specific humidity is reduced, so in the case of fog the droplets will vaporise into the now unsaturated air. Hence cooling or chilling is one method they tried.

The other method is simply passing the air through or over a chemical drying agent, I am not sure which ones they tried but the most well known one is silica gel which you put into cupboards and drawers etc.

The 5th method is rather more difficult (that is why I asked for only 4) they experimented with electrical discharges, presumably to ionize the air or droplets in some way?

The gasoline method caused an updraft which cleared the air for 100-2000 meters. The updraft, smoke (I wonder why coal gas or methane wasn't used?) and flames themselves caused landing problems. However, 1200 aircraft were landed by this method by the end of the war, this was used in 15 airfields in Britain one in France and another by the USN in the Aleutians.

Let's leave the forum open to questions.

I have one, hopefully fairly easy.

What was unique about Heinz Guderian in relation to divisional command in the Wehrmacht?

I don't want to hog the forum, but since no-one else is answering:

Is this something to do with his appointment as Chef der Schnellen Truppen (Chief of fast Troops) responsible for recruiting, training, tactics and technique of motorized and armoured units?

Or did he hold too high a rank or something like that?

Nope, that isn't the answer I'm looking for.

I will have to withdraw this question gentlemen, as I've found that the answer I had isn't exactly correct. Therefore the forum is open to questions.

Who declared war on Britain and America in 1943?