Empirical Study of Flight-Dynamic Influences on Radar Cross-Section Models

Abstract

In this work, measurements and a method for analyzing flight-dynamic effects on radar cross-section models for aircraft are presented. Flight-dynamic effects need to be considered when designing combat aircraft and creating target models for radar simulators. The work is based on flight data from three different types of aircraft: Piper PA-28 Archer II, Boeing 737, and Saab JAS 39 Gripen. Using inertial navigation and global-positioning systems, the motions of the three aircraft are recorded in flight. From the data, aspect angles toward a radar station located in the extension of the intended flight path are generated using a simulator. It is found that the major contribution to perturbations in aspect angles is due to the rotational degrees of freedom and that bivariate normal distributions are a good candidate for approximating the uncertainty in aspect angles for all three aircraft types. It is also found that each rotational degree of freedom is close to a normal distribution but that the parameter values of the distribution vary with altitude and aircraft type.