Wing Mounted Ice Penetrating Radar Array for a Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remote Aircraft

Abstract

A wing mounted ice penetrating radar array for remote sensing is presented. The structure is designed to carry radar antennas on a representative unmanned aircraft to enable airborne sounding and imaging of ice sheets in cryospheric climates. Current unmanned aircraft are presented and representative aircraft characteristics are selected based on currently fielded aircraft. A brief structural analysis of the possible platforms is presented to assess the relative wing flexibility of such platforms, and thus to establish the interface boundary displacement and rotation conditions associated with a wing curvature that the wing mounted array must withstand during flight. The aircraft characteristics and wing curvature are used to develop a sizing condition for the wing mounted array. The sized array is presented component by component with geometry and stress information. A modal analysis is also presented to ensure that the structure is safe from possible sources of vibration. The aircraft performance impacts are then explored to verify the feasibility of the platform. A three antenna array pylon mounted array near each wing root is shown to be feasible in preliminary design, though service issues associated with icing, vortex shedding and downstream performance effects on the pusher-propeller configuration must be examined in greater detail.