Photograph showing a Skiatron radar display system

Photograph showing a Skiatron radar display system including power supply rack and monitor unit

Skiatron was a radar display system which facilitated the work of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) plotters during enemy action in the Second World War. The Skiatron was a modified oscilloscope giving a particularly bright radar display and images could be projected upwards with the cathode ray tube (CRT) mounted underneath a transparent glass plotting table. This equipment was quickly installed in British Ground-controlled interception (GCI) stations during the Second World War.

Small blocks or counters were moved at regular intervals by WAAF plotters to both identify the relative positions of both 'friend' and 'foe' but also to track the movements of squadrons and individual aeroplanes as the attack unfolded.

The role of the plotters was a critical one, the work was demanding and instructions to the pilots and information from the radar traces had to be rapidly and accurately interpreted by the ground controllers who generally were positioned around and above the plotting table; 'theatre-style'.