CRT implosions (was: Re: "screen mold")

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Tony" == Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> writes:

 >> > I am told, BTW, that several radar operates in planes in the
 >> last war > were killed when the plane had a heavy landing, the
 >> radar display CRT > imploded, and they were litterally shot in the
 >> face by bits of the > electron gun.
 >> 
 >> Not something I'd heard before - but I can certainly believe that;
 >> such displays tend to be pretty large in diameter and of course
 >> are flat-faced so must be naturally pretty weak toward the centre
 >> of the face.

 Tony> Actually, no. The standard radar CRT over here at that time was
 Tony> the VCR97. That's a 6" diaameter thing with a fairly convex
 Tony> screen. (Incidentally, VCR stood for Valve, Cathode Ray, or so
 Tony> I am told).

But larger flat face radar tubes appeared in the 1960s if not
earlier.  The CDC 6000 series console (DD60) uses a pair of radar
tubes, with electrostatic deflection.  I'm not sure exactly how big
they are, but certainly not less than 12 inches.  They were probably
at least 2 feet long.  Deflection voltage is around 2 kV, supplied by
an amplifier chain ending in a 3CX100A5 microwave transmitter tube.

The radar tubes used until maybe 5 years ago at US air traffic control
centers were at least that big, possibly bigger, and also flat.

	paul