Black Beacon
This unusual building was constructed by local builders WC Reade of Aldeburgh in 1928 for the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, to house an experimental 'rotating loop' navigation beacon. The Air Ministry also funded work on the development of an aircraft location system based on this early innovation. The Racon navigation beacon on its pole atop the lighthouse is a direct descendant of this early innovation.

Renovated in 1995, the beacon now provides an elevated viewing area and displays for the visiting public.

Bomb Ballistics Building
Built in 1933, this building was the nerve centre of the 'new' experimental bombing range that replaced the First World War range. The construction of the building, and the range of instrumentation that went with it, was the 'state of the art' response of the period. It housed all the equipment used to record the flight of bombs in order to improve their aerodynamics and to provide data for the production of the tables used to refine bomb aiming.

The equipment was steadily improved over the years, most notably from the 1950s for the development of the atomic bomb. It was restored in 1996, with the roof now providing a platform from which to view the site, and in particular, the vegetated shingle features that make the Ness such an important site. A display on the uses of this building and the surrounding area can be seen inside the building.

©National Trust
Bomb Ballistics Building

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Radar
Perhaps the most significant experiments on Orford Ness took place between 1935 and 1937 after Robert Watson-Watt and his team arrived on 13th May 1935 to found the 'Ionospheric Research Station'.

This was in fact a cover for the research and development of the aerial defence system, which was later to become known as radar. One of the few surviving First World War accommodation blocks on the site, this was the transmitter building used by those radar pioneers. The receiver building is further to the right.

The first demonstrations of the feasibility of radar as a practical air defence system were made here before the team moved a little further down the coast to a larger site at Bawdsey Manor in 1936. There, a full range of applications was developed leading to the creation of the first of the 'Chain Home' stations.

The last remaining mast can still be seen from the Ness today. It is not an exaggeration to say that but for the work done by this team at Orford Ness and Bawdsey Manor, the outcome of the Battle of Britain and the subsequent history of Europe would have been very different.