Multifunctional Design of Load Bearing Antenna Structure for Small UAVs

Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAVs) have demonstrated their value in military Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Intelligence operations as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). While small UAVs have demonstrated their value in the warfighting environment, their size, weight, and power constraints somewhat limit their mission footprints to small payload applications such as video surveillance or high band (GHz) communications. Lower frequency communications missions are precluded because the antennas required to support such missions are too large. Geneva Aerospace and Ohio State University (OSU) are pleased to present our offering for the multi-functional design of load bearing antenna structures for Small Unmanned Air Vehicles (SUAV). Geneva and OSU have formed an industry / University team that we believe offers a cost effective, high payoff program to satisfy the near-term requirements for high performance broadband antennas integrated into SUAVs. Our approach uses the SUAV load bearing structure as the integrated antenna to cover the broad frequency band from 30 to 3000 MHz. We will use Geneva's Dakota UAV as the SUAV case study for the development and demonstration of the proposed load bearing antenna structure technology.