NASA Tests New Antenna Aboard the Ikhana Aircraft

NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center recently partnered with NASA Glenn Research Center to test an antenna measuring system in preparation for building a new conformal antenna aboard NASA’s Ikhana aircraft. The new conformal antenna will be placed under Ikhana’s radome (a structural enclosure on the aircraft that protects the antenna) and is designed to minimize unwanted radiation in undesired directions from the antenna (known as side lobes).

In this 1-minute, 9-second video, NASA highlights the methods used by NASA engineers for validating the technology and preparing it for optimal use during flight tests scheduled for September 2018.

[caitgems]

Beautiful aircraft. This is why I studied aeronautical engineering.

[jasonlong]

I hope you also studied for yourself to understand, why, how, if.... We need engineers and scientists that can maybe change what we know now, to what we know about the future, and the evolution of aviation.