THE NEED FOR LARGE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ARRAYS ON NONPLANAR SURFACES, COUPLED WITH RECENT ADVANCES IN ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY, HAS RESULTED IN A RECENT SURGE OF INTEREST IN CONFORMAL ARRAYS.

THE NEED FOR LARGE HIGH-PERFORMANCE ARRAYS ON NONPLANAR SURFACES, COUPLED WITH RECENT ADVANCES IN ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY, HAS RESULTED IN A RECENT SURGE OF INTEREST IN CONFORMAL ARRAYS. APPLICATIONS INCLUDE LARGE CONFORMAL ARRAYS ON AIRCRAFT FUSELAGE FOR SURVEILLANCE, ON ARTILLERY SHELLS, FOR MISSILE SEEKERS (AIR-TO-AIR, SURFACE-TO-AIR, AND AIR-TO-SURFACE APPLICATIONS) AND ON REENTRY VEHICLES. CONFORMAL ARRAYS HAVE PROVEN TO BE ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVES TO MOUNTING EXTERNAL RADOMES ON, CUTTING HOLES IN OR CHANGING THE SHAPES OF VEHICLES TO ACCOMMODATE AN ANTENNA. THESE ARRAYS ARE ESPECILLY ATTRACTIVE FOR APPLICATIONS WHICH REQUIRE WIDE ANGULAR COVERAGE WHILE MINIMIZING SCAN LOSS. HOWEVER, NON-PLANAR ARRAYS HAVE SOME UNIQUE FEATURES WHICH MUST BE RECOGNIZED. NOT THE LEAST OF THESE IS THAT CONFORMAL ARRAYS ARE MORE DIFFICULT TO DESIGN AND TO ANALYZE THAN ARE PLANAR ARRAYS. FURTHERMORE, COMPLEXITY IS ADDED WHEN SURFACE IS CONICAL, AS ON A REENTRY VEHICLE. THE TECHNICAL OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH ARE TO FORMULATE AND VERIFY EXPRESSIONS FOR CHARACTERIZING THE RESPONSE OF CONICALLY CONFORMAL ARRAYS. TO DO THIS, DSA WILL MAKE USE OF EXISTING INNOVATIVE COMPUTER MODELS AND MATHEMATICAL TECHNIQUES. THE INTENDED RESULT IS TO ADD TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF CONFORMAL ARRAY PERFORMANCE AND TO DEVELOP TOOLS AND A DATA BASE FOR FUTURE ANALYSES.