Radar was patented in 1935 by British scientist Sir Robert Watson-Watt, initially perceived as a method of weather forecasting. But during World War II, German Luftwaffe bombing missions prompted the British government to ask the U.S. National Defense Research Committee to develop the application for use in the war. The NRDC had been formed in 1940 to “correlate and support research on mechanisms and devices of warfare.”
Research Corporation friend and board member Vannevar Bush headed the NRDC. Bush had established the Radiation Laboratory at MIT in 1940 to advance the design and deployment of microwave radar systems. Among the scientists working at the Radiation Laboratory were Ernest O. Lawrence, Isidor Rabi and Lee Dubridge, all Research Corporation grantees. Projects included physical electronics, microwave physics, electromagnetic properties of matter and microwave communication principles.
In 1941, Research Corporation formed Research Construction Co. Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Under contract with MIT, Research Construction Company operated a Model Shop that produced for the government, on a “no profit and no loss” basis, $12 million worth of experimental radar apparatus. Research Construction Company made small production runs for immediate military needs. If successful, equipment was turned over to commercial concerns for mass manufacture. Research Construction also made Cottrell’s patents for nitric acid and sulfuric acid concentrators available at no charge for the war effort.
Research Construction Company was dissolved at the end of the war.