RF Transparent Aircraft structural/control surface designs

[Higgler]

I'm looking for help designing RF transparent structures such as fuselage and control surfaces. Any experience would be appreciated. Is this an old subject or is it new to aircraft design?
Are there any aircraft structural design engineers out there interested in the subject, possibly teaming with us on a proposal?

A contract proposal that I'm considering states the need to;

"design aircraft surrounding structures and control surfaces to be RF transparent to allow beam propagation" They mean RF energy from antennas can better penetrate/pass thru a tail or fuselage to improve their antenna coverage.

"The technical challenge is that RF transparent materials are inherently less stiff, strong, and durable than traditional structural materials.

The goal of this effort is to exploit novel structural concepts, advanced materials, and advanced reinforcement concepts to develop RF transparent structures with improved structural performance and integrity.

PHASE I: Develop and demonstrate structural performance improvement and basic electromagnetic performance on a subscale component."

My company has a few options that I'd like to discuss, such as;
1) 50% metal, 50" non-metal RF transmparent structure.
2) Antennas on both sides of a metal structure,
3) Hexcel layered composites spaced/arranged for RF transparency

Thanks,
Kevin C. Higgins

 

[rowen01960]

Kevin

look at

http://www.afcsat.com/

you need to identify the acceptable transmission loss (db at the required frequency range). You will most likely need to do some impendance matching using AQII fabric in a CE matrix. ( I have not had seen stiffness loss only weight gain!) same old trade-offs.

robert

 

[MattBryanton]

Kevin,

take a look here

http://www.baesystems.com/atctowcester/

Matt Bryanton