Conformal UHF SATCOM Antenna for Tactical Aircraft

Wang-Tripp Corporation (WTC) prposes a six-month Phse I exploratiory research and development effort to design a UHF Satellite Communications (SATCOM) antenna for beyond-line-of-sight communications, and participation in Navy communications nets. Curretnly availabe UHF SATCOM antennas are unsuitable for the Navy's high-performance aircraft because of form factor, weight, intrusion into the aircaft and/or protrusion into the air stream. The antenna will be designed to operate at 240-275 MHz (Receive) and 290-320 MHz (Transmit) with a 3 dBiC gain, with power handling capaiblaity of 150W CW, maximum size of 12" dia. x 5", and a weight of less than 15 lbs. There are other requirments on form factor, installation, axial ratio, gain pattern, etc. The baseline approach for the proposed research will be the newly invented spiral-mode microstrip (SMM) antenna (patents pending), of which Wang-Tripp Corporation holds the exclusive license. The primary effort will be to meet the size requiarment. A braadboard model will be designed, fabricated, and tested. A final report documenting the resuls will be written and delivered.