X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Sidney Cotton


Aircraft Operating Company

In early 1939, Sidney Cotton employed the facilities of AOC for production and interpretation of both vertical and oblique aerial photographs taken of ground installations in Germany and elsewhere in clandestine flight operations.

Imagery intelligence

In 1939 Sidney Cotton and Flying Officer Maurice Longbottom of the RAF suggested that airborne reconnaissance may be a task better suited to fast, small aircraft which would use their speed and high service ceiling to avoid detection and interception.

Sidney Cotton's aerial photographs were far ahead of their time.



see also

Aerial reconnaissance in World War II

Sidney Cotton’s work found only grudging approval with the Royal Air Force, but eventually his work was incorporated into 1 Photographic Development Unit (PDU) at RAF Heston and then RAF Benson, a unit from which most later British air reconnaissance developed.