Advanced antennas for air vehicle flight test evaluation.

When flight testing missiles and other high performance vehicles, flight instrumentation antennas are required to support telemetry, data link, flight termination systems (flight safety), and tracking beacons. Integration of these antennas onto the test missiles creates challenges with respect to modifying their aerodynamic characteristics (drag) and radar cross section (RCS). Rock West Solution proposes new, advanced technology, low profile and conformal antennas made from materials that can withstand the high temperatures of high speed vehicles. These antennas can be configured to provide similar gain and pattern characteristics as their commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) counterparts, while have significantly lower impacts on drag and RCS. Our proposed concepts include antennas that can be easily adapted to curved contours of aerodynamic bodies. Bolt-on and bonded antennas are investigated, with the primary trade-offs being between integration complexity, cost and performance.