The Boeing Company

Dennis K McCarthy

Ronald O Lavin

Manny S Urcia

Michael J Valle

Andy H Lee

Daniel D Wilke

Neal Eugene Tornberg

Ronald O'Neil Lavin

A method for designing an antenna including defining an operating frequency of an antenna radiating element located within an antenna cavity structure; determining a non-loaded depth of the antenna cavity structure; determining a reduced depth of the antenna cavity structure; determining a reduction factor to reduce the non-loaded depth to the reduced depth; and selecting a dielectric material, at least partially forming a radome structure covering the antenna radiating element, to achieve the reduction factor.

Cavity antenna with radome

The embodiments described herein provide for composite panels that include elements that form one or more Radio Frequency (RF) antennas. The composite panels may be integrated along with other composite panels to form a composite structure for a vehicle. In some cases, the composite panels function both as elements of an RF antenna and as structural elements of the vehicle. In some cases, the composite panels function both as elements of an RF antenna and as a means for static charge dissipation. When operating as an RF antenna, the composite panels are inherently conformal with an outside surface of a composite structure.

Embedded structural antennas

An antenna includes an antenna cavity structure that defines an antenna cavity and that has a cavity opening. The antenna also includes an antenna radiating element located within the cavity opening and operable to emit electromagnetic radiation that has a frequency and a wavelength and a radome structure covering the cavity opening. The radome structure includes a dielectric material and defines an antenna window that is transparent to the electromagnetic radiation. Due to the dielectric material of the radome structure, the antenna cavity has a depth less than one-fourth of the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation and the cavity is filled with a low-dielectric material.

An integrated driveshaft cover antenna includes a driveshaft cover including a conductive layer and having a generally curved cross-section. The driveshaft cover is hingeably secured and electrically coupled to a helicopter tail boom section to cover a driveshaft access opening. The integrated drive shaft cover includes a dielectric layer including a first surface shaped to conform to a curved outer surface of the driveshaft cover and a second surface opposite the first surface. The first surface of the dielectric layer is positioned over the curved outer surface of the driveshaft cover. The first surface is secured to the curved outer surface of the driveshaft cover. The integrated drive shaft cover includes a slotted patch high frequency (HF) antenna layer having an inner slot and extends a majority of a length of the dielectric layer. The slotted patch HF antenna layer is secured to the second surface of the dielectric layer.

Conformal high frequency antenna

Antennas, integrated driveshaft covers, and methods are disclosed. A particular antenna includes a dielectric layer. The dielectric layer has a first curved surface and a second curved surface opposite the first curved surface. A conductive body has a curved outer surface, where the first curved surface of the dielectric layer is positioned against the curved outer surface. A high frequency (HF) antenna layer is positioned over positioned over the second curved surface of the dielectric layer, where the HF antenna layer is curved to conform to the second curved surface of the dielectric layer. A pair of contacts may be configured to receive an electrical connection for the HF antenna layer. When an HF signal is applied to the pair of contacts, the conductive body interacts with the HF antenna layer to radiate energy.

Systems and techniques to assess damage. A damage reporting module may allow a user to provide information indicative of a damage description and damage location. The damage reporting module may create a data object based on the information. The data object may be used to compare the damage event to one or more historical damage events. The data object may be used in an analysis module to automatically determine disposition information (e.g., repair information).

Automated damage assessment, report, and disposition

A damage detection system includes a processor and a transmitter communicatively connected to the processor. The transmitter sends a signal to the processor and the processor is programmed to assign a spatial coordinate to the transmitter. The processor is further programmed to identify a transmitter location as damaged when the transmitter fails to send the signal. The damage detection system may analyze the damaged area and report potentially affected sub-systems to users of a machine or vehicle equipped with the damage detection system.

Growing community of inventors

Gilbert, AZ, United States of America

Dennis K McCarthy