Norton Performance Plastics Corporation

Norton Company

S Benjamin Mackenzie

David W Stressing

A radome wall construction is provided which includes a sandwich of impact resistant thermoplastic closed cell foam core bounded by epoxy/quartz laminate facings. The facings are dimensioned to be a half wavelength wall for a 94 GHz wave and thinwall for a 9.345 GHz wave. The radome wall can be used for making radomes for aircraft while maintaining satisfactory transmission efficiency for both the X-band weather radar and W-band imaging radar.

W-band and X-band radome wall

A retractable forward looking radome assembly which extends from a recess in the undersurface of the aircraft is provided for housing and protecting one or more radar systems and orienting the radar systems and radome wall for adequate transmission. The retractable forward looking radome may be adapted for housing a mm-wave imaging radar system or may house multiple radar systems. Depending upon the application, different radome wall designs may be used. In one embodiment, a retractable forward looking radome is provided which extends from the nose portion of an aircraft having a highly pointed nose, such as a supersonic airliner. In another embodiment, a retractable forward looking radome is provided which extends from and retracts into a larger nose radome. In another embodiment, a retractable forward looking radome is provided which extends from and retracts into the lower fuselage of an aircraft.

Retractable forward looking radome for aircraft

The invention describes a multi-layer radome construction which is termed a D-sandwich and allows excellent transmission efficiency over areas of the entire spectrum of DC to at least 100 GHz. The radome wall construction comprises a core layer of low dielectric constant material bounded by intermediate layers of high dielectric constant material which themselves are bounded by additional layers of low dielectric constant material. Each of the low dielectric constant layers has a substantial electrical effect upon the performance of the radome as well as being a high strength material which provides substantial structural rigidity to the radome. The radome may be further provided with one or more protective surface coatings for certain environmental conditions, without destroying the desired transmission characteristics of the radome. The dielectric constant, loss tangent and thickness of the various materials in the multi-layer construction of the invention are designed to provide excellent transmission efficiency over the frequency and angular range desired. The thicknesses of the various layers in the multi-layer construction are also designed to minimize insertion and return losses thereby minimizing loading of radar transmitters as well as being relatively insensitive to aspect angle and arbitrary wave polarization.

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Rootstown, OH, United States of America

S Benjamin Mackenzie