Conformal Load Bearing Antenna Structures for Small UAVs

CLAS for SUAVs is a program dedicated to incorporating conformal antennas into small aircraft. For an antenna to be of greatest functionality its length must be at least one quarter of the wavelength of its operating frequency. While this is not a major issue for high frequencies and larger vehicles, designing a fully functional low frequency antenna for a small vehicle presents many challenges, as there is just not enough room on the vehicle to contain an antenna that is a full quarter wavelength. Additionally, the power available on these smaller vehicles tends to be lower, thus guiding antenna designs to be conformal to the vehicle as opposed to being attached externally. For this program NextGen is designing antennas to cover the frequency range from 30MHz to 3GHz based on antennas that were designed for use on the Comanche.