BUSIGNIES, HENRI-GASTON

born Dec. 29, 1905, Sceaux, Fr. died June 20, 1981, Antibes French-born American electronics engineer whose invention of high-frequency direction finders (HF/DF, or Huff Duff) permitted the U.S. Navy during World War II to detect enemy transmissions. In 1926 Busignies received a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Paris and began his career by inventing the airborne radio compass, which permitted accurate aircraft navigation. He joined the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) in 1928 and continued work on his first crude radio compass and radio direction finders. He and other ITT scientists left France for the United States in 1940. Busignies's work for the U.S. Navy resulted in 1941 in development of a high-frequency direction-finding system that was installed throughout the world during the war; later versions were carried on U.S. aircraft, on ships, and by military vehicles. After the war he invented moving-target indicator (MTI) radar, which allows detection of an object, such as an aircraft, while it passes behind a large obstacle. Busignies retired from ITT in 1975 as senior vice president.