Dielectric Measuring Tool for Radome Checkout

Aircraft radomes must maintain high structural integrity while being transparent to radar. Radomes are commonly repaired by composite shops, and then tested for radar performance. There is currently no simple, small tool that can determine if a repaired area has proper radar performance. There is also no tool that a repair shop can use to determine the location and severity of radar performance anomalies in a radome. Far field range test facilities reject the entire radome, so repairs may done on much larger areas than are required. Texas Research Institute and the University of Missouri Rolla propose to develop two radar performance measurement tools: 1. A simple gauge similar in use to currently available moisture meters, i.e. when the microwave probe passes over an area of radar anomaly the needle will move an amount related to the severity of the radar performance reduction. Composite repair personnel can use this gauge to quickly, simply determine radar performance. 2. A more complex meter that will quantitatively read out reflection levels and phase shifts created by local anomalies. FFR personnel can use this meter to collect data for assessing how local anomalies affect their far field readings.