Design and performance of airborne radomes: a review

Abstract

The ever increasing demands on the performance of airborne antennas place comparable demands on the design of the enclosing randome to ensure minimal degradation of the antenna radiation pattern. Radomes for airborne application can be separated into three main categories: large aircraft radomes of either the nose-cone or under-fuselage type, small aircraft radomes often flush mounted to the airframe and missile radomes. The geometry of the radome, being largely determined by aerodynamic considerations, often leads to severe degradation of the electrical performance of any enclosed antenna. Rain erosion and heating of the radome surface also constrain the electrical design by limiting the choice of material and builds. For large airborne radomes, the enclosed antenna may be required to exhibit both low angular aberrations and small sidelobe degradations. Radomes for these applications may also be required to operate in either a dual-, broad- or multiband role. Metallic or dielectric bodies, such as lightning conductors, the pitot tube and pitot-static pressure tubes, either within or on the radome surface, also present potential sources of electromagnetic degradation. Missile radomes share most of these effects, but to varying degrees because of their relatively smaller size and different operational constraints. The paper reviews the electromagnetic design and analysis of such radomes, examines the sources of degradation of the enclosed-antenna radiation pattern and discusses the design requirements with reference to the operational environment.