Load Bearing Antenna Structure for Small Unmanned Air Vehicles (SUAV’s)

The expanding functionality of Small and Medium Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) has led to a great interest in antennas strategically placed aboard the airframes of these vehicles that do not interfere with their aerodynamics. Traditionally, low-frequency antennas such as blades or dipoles/monopoles are placed aboard airframes as an afterthought where they generally lead to undesirable performance characteristics from a structural, aerodynamic and RF point of view. However, AFRL has performed and supported recent research that has led to a class of antennas called Conformal Load-Bearing Antenna Structures (CLAS). These antennas are integrated directly into the airframe itself to perform both structural and RF duties. FIRST RF Corp. in Boulder, CO has developed a class of antennas that support and broaden the concept of a Conformal Load-Bearing Antenna Structure. This antenna concept, called the RF Wing, is a departure from the standard method of placing antennas aboard aircraft only in convenient locations. FIRST RF will demonstrate in this proposal that the airframe itself, namely the wing, can be used to radiate RF signals as well as serve as a load-bearing structure.