Surface could help create sleeker aircraft in future

[unhappycamper]

Surface could help create sleeker aircraft in future
By Mark Abramson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, October 6, 2008

Research into a new type of aircraft surface could some day help create sleeker jets that don’t need all of those clumsy looking antennas.

The technology is called holographic impedance surfaces, and researchers are optimistic it could be used to help engineer better antennas that are flush with a fuselage.

"This is a coating we would put on a surface of a body of a vehicle or something to allow waves to wrap around it," said Daniel Sievenpiper, the lead researcher at HRL Laboratories, which is testing the technology.

For example, an impedance surface could be used to eliminate the E-3 AWAC’s blind spot that is created by its tail blocking the radar, said Arje Nachman, program manager at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. An impedance surface would allow the radar waves to wrap around the tail.

Another benefit of an impedance surface is it would allow for antennas to be put on the top of aircraft, where they would have better protection, Nachman said. That would have huge benefits, especially on stealth aircraft, he said.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=57921