Flight Electronics Payload for Curved Confocal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies, CLAS-ACT, Phased Array Antenna on T-34-C Aircraft Door Flight Curved Confocal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies, CLAS-ACT, Phased Array Antenna Control / Flight Testing

Curved Confocal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies, CLAS-ACT, Phased Array Antenna on Mock Carbon Fiber Fuselage

Curved Confocal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies, CLAS-ACT, Phased Array Antenna on Mock Carbon Fiber Fuselage

Curved Confocal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies, CLAS-ACT, Phased Array Antenna on Mock Carbon Fiber Fuselage

A photo of the conformal antenna installed on the door of T-34C aircraft. The conformal antenna was developed and designed by members of the Conformal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies activity within the Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project. The antenna is made of aerogels which have resulted in a thin, flexible antenna substrate with improved gain, bandwidth and efficiency.

NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center installed a conformal antenna on the door of its T-34C aircraft to test its performance parameters. The conformal antenna was designed through a cross-center collaboration through the Conformal Lightweight Antenna Structures for Aeronautical Communications Technologies project.

Tests were conducted with a robotic antenna scanner at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. The scanner was used to test the in-situ radiation pattern of the conformal antenna to verify its performance parameters before being tested on an aircraft.