Photos: Classic Iris radar gets vision back

The tech that kept the airspace over southern England safe for decades is back in action at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC), at WWII code-breaking centre Bletchley Park.

For 25 years the British-designed Iris investigative radar recording system operated behind closed doors at the former RAF West Drayton base outside London, handling millions of aircraft movements without a single failing, down to what was then the UK's main military air traffic control.

Two Iris systems were transferred to TNMOC where expert volunteers have brought them back to life after many months of reconstruction.

After National Air Traffic Services was set up at Swanwick, the last of the PDP-11-based radar stations were decommissioned early in 2008.

Here TNMOC director, Kevin Murrell, operates one of the PDP-11 radar station computers donated by National Air Traffic Services.

Photo credit: The National Museum of Computing