Popham panel

The Popham panel, first introduced in 1918, was named for First World War Royal Air Force officer, Robert Brooke-Popham, and designed to communicate messages to aircraft from the ground, in Morse code, before the introduction of radio communication. ==Operation==

Anne Baker described a Popham panel as the size of a "small Persian rug" and structured as a blind. The top of the slats were painted green and from the air, it appeared green when closed. Strong elastic held the slats closed and the operator could pull a cord against the tension of the elastic, to open the blind, showing a white background. The person on the ground could open the panel for a short time, indicating a "dot" in Morse code, or a longer time, indicating a "dash", and thereby had a method of producing a message. If the aircraft located the panel, the air crew could be able to read a message sent by the ground operator. It was aided with a numerical code system, with white numbers in broad strips. One example of a pre-arranged code was "XII", meaning ""come again tomorrow". Andrew Roe described a type that were made from dark blue waterproof American cloth. It weighed around and was about in size, with a white T-shape stitched on. Branching off were further white panels with dark blue flaps, which were numbered one to nine. ==Deployment==

was requisitioned by a British commander serving on the North-West Frontier of India using a Popham panel. The panels were used by the British and in the United States, where they were given to battalions, brigades and regiments for communicating with aircraft. They were used during the Waziristan campaign of 1919–20 on the North-West Frontier of India along with the simpler ground-based signals, but military historian Herman Watteville described them as "of no great value" in that fast-moving conflict. they were aided frequently by the RAF at Miranshah. Often unable to land and sometimes with the wireless not functioning, they had to revert to using old-fashioned land-signals in the form of Popham panels. They had less than 15 minutes to drop the panel, which was to be delivered in two halves; the second half to be dropped if the first was successful and was not captured by the enemy. The complete panel was eventually delivered to the legation by the Afghan Army, after the aircraft had to land nearby due to damage. ==References==