Abstract:

During actual high-speed flights, the electromagnetic (EM) properties of aircraft radomes are influenced by dielectric temperature drift, leading to substantial drift in the boresight errors (BSEs) from their room temperature values. However, applying thermal loads to the radome during ground-based EM simulation tests is challenging. This paper presents an EM equivalent physical model (EEPM) for high-speed aircraft radomes that account for the effects of dielectric temperature drift. This is achieved by attaching dielectric slices of specific thicknesses to the outer surface of a room-temperature radome (RTR) to simulate the increase in electrical thickness resulting from high temperatures. This approach enables accurate simulations of the BSEs of high-temperature radomes (HTRs) under high-speed flight conditions. An application example, supported by full-wave numerical calculations and physical testing, demonstrates that the EEPM exhibits substantial improvement in approximating the HTR compared to the RTR, facilitating precise simulations of the BSEs of HTRs during high-speed flights. Overall, the proposed EEPM is anticipated to considerably enhance the alignment between the ground-based simulations of high-speed aircraft guidance systems and their actual flight conditions.

Key words: high-speed aircraft, radome, dielectric temperature drift, boresight error (BSE), electromagnetic equivalent physical model (EEPM)