OLD AZURIANS

After leaving school in 1935 he went to Brighton Technical College where he obtained an external degree in physical chemistry from Imperial College London at the age of 19.

 

In the winter of 1940, while still at at Brighton Technical College, he was recruited into the RAF for non-flying duties. It was during his wartime service with the RAF that he invented the first instruments only landing system (ILS) which formed the basis for all such systems in world-wide use today.

 

Originally from Finchley, north London, he was seven when he arrived in Worthing in 1928 to live at 19 Wallace Avenue in a family house designed and built by his builder father Charles.

 

Lennard (this was his mother’s maiden name) developed an early interest in chemistry, setting up his own laboratory in the garage of his home and experimenting with explosive mixtures, as boys did in those days, unfettered by safety regulations.

 

As he later modestly put it: “I wasn’t particularly bright, I just knew what I found really interesting and studied to achieve the right ends”. It was perhaps indicative of this outlook that he left school early before taking the School Certificate. 

 

As a Pilot Officer in the RAF Lennard was posted to 220 Squadron Coastal Command which flew Fortress aircraft. From there he moved on to various other RAF bases where he was employed in testing, fault-finding, and generally investigating airborne electronic systems such as Bomber Command’s H2S ground-mapping radar and Coastal Command’s air-to-surface radar used to detect enemy E-boats and submarines.

 

It was not long before Lennard’s problem-solving and other practical talents were recognised and he was eventually posted to the Telecommunications Flying Unit at Defford airfield in 1943 to work on aircraft radar homing aids. This work led to the world’s first fully automatic “hands off” landing system, successfully demonstrated for the first time in January 1945 using an elderly Boeing 247D airliner.

 

Lennard made the crucial step forward in this achievement by realising how existing autopilot, land-based landing aids, and airborne radar could be linked together, and then designing and building the equipment (dubbed “Barber’s Box) to do it. A patent application was filed in 1945 to cover his invention.

 

 After leaving the RAF in 1946 and returning to Worthing, he met up with Sam Youles who had been experimenting with autopilots for small ships and boats for some years. It seemed an ideal working partnership and together they set up Marine Autopilots Ltd., a successful company designing and producing autopilots marketed under the trade name “Pinta”. The company survived for about 50 years (first in Hove and later in Shoreham) due in no small measure to Lennard’s insistence on always putting customer service first.

 

 Throughout his career Lennard demonstrated that peculiarly British flair for ingenious improvisation using what was available at the time. The early “Pinta” models were built from Ministry of Defence surplus equipment.

 

Lennard Charles Barber born 12 March 1921, died 12 February 2013, married in 1946 Betty Wallington who survives him with their son John and daughter Lindsay.

 

Ken Panchen gratefully acknowledges John Barber’s help in compiling this tribute to his father.