Dual-Use Structures: Composite Wing with Structural Antenna Aperture

Many modern aircraft, including rotorcraft, require conformal antennas and fairings to reduce wind drag, ice accretion, lightning strikes, and impact damage. An innovative composite wing configuration with a structural Ultra High Frequency (UHF) antenna window "aperture" has been developed. The wing is based on variants of lightweight X-Cor® sandwich core technology for durability and damage tolerance, with tailored electromagnetic properties in the aperture region of the wing. This paper presents a brief introduction to helicopter wings, a summary of recent research at Boeing and Army leading to this design, and the development approach used for this project. Structural and electromagnetic analyses are provided, and measurement results of an early prototype are summarized. The emphasis of this paper is on the wing configuration details surrounding the antenna aperture. The approach can be replicated on almost any current or future aircraft or rotorcraft.