They were vector displays. But possibly not quite in the way you're thinking.
The original radar displays would scan from the center outward along a radial. The timing of the scan was predefined to scale for distance. The beam intensity signal was directly the (amplified) radar return signal. So a stronger returned signal would cause a more visible "blip" on the long-phosphor display.
The interesting part is to make the radar beam scan around the CRT display, the whole cathode tube emitter assembly would be driven by a motor synchronized with the spinning radar dish. This rotation would have to match the speed and direction of the radar dish at all times, otherwise the blips would show in the wrong place.
The fixed radial and distance lines would be printed either on the CRT tube itself or on a transparent cover. Displays like this were used for decades, probably well into the 1980s or even early 1990s. Newer versions were able to use simple electronics to scan in the X and Y direction independently, to avoid the more complex rotating beam emitter assembly.
I was wondering about that after asking my question, since converting the signal to an x/y scope requires trigonometry. Probably a challenge to do electronically in the early days of radar. Leave it to the WW2-era engineers to find an electromechanical solution!
Radar was surprisingly advanced by the end of WW2, the Brits and Americans had ground scanning radar by the end of WW2 (H2S and the later H2X) all done without transistors or computers as we'd recognise them :).
The original radar displays would scan from the center outward along a radial. The timing of the scan was predefined to scale for distance. The beam intensity signal was directly the (amplified) radar return signal. So a stronger returned signal would cause a more visible "blip" on the long-phosphor display.
The interesting part is to make the radar beam scan around the CRT display, the whole cathode tube emitter assembly would be driven by a motor synchronized with the spinning radar dish. This rotation would have to match the speed and direction of the radar dish at all times, otherwise the blips would show in the wrong place.
The fixed radial and distance lines would be printed either on the CRT tube itself or on a transparent cover. Displays like this were used for decades, probably well into the 1980s or even early 1990s. Newer versions were able to use simple electronics to scan in the X and Y direction independently, to avoid the more complex rotating beam emitter assembly.
More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_display#Plan_position_in...