The disclosed invention provides a distributed directional aperture (DDA) system that is installed in a vertical lift aircraft that comprises a fuselage and a rotor system including rotary wings rotatably coupled to the fuselage. The DDA system provides capability to receive and/or transmit signals in one or more frequency bands, and provides communications, signals intelligence (SIGNINT), positional sensing, jamming, and offensive cyber on the vertical lift aircraft. The DDA system of the vertical lift aircraft includes a sensor and emitter array subsystem that includes a plurality of sensors and emitters distributed in the rotary wings, a beamformer subsystem that processes the sensor signals and emitter signals, and a telemetry subsystem that conveys signals between the sensor and emitter array subsystem and the beamformer subsystem.

A blade antenna comprising: an upper blade element made of conductive, planar material having a profile that curves upwardly from a centrally-located feed point; and a lower blade element made of conductive, planar material having a profile that curves downwardly from the feed point, wherein the lower blade element is configured to be connected to a ground and has a thickness that is at least three times a thickness of the upper blade element, and wherein the curved profiles of the upper and lower blade elements are disposed with respect to one another so as to form a tapered slot on each side of the feed point.

An airfoil system is provided that includes an airfoil. This airfoil includes a first exterior surface, a second exterior surface, a first airfoil segment and a second airfoil segment. The airfoil extends widthwise between the first exterior surface and the second exterior surface. The first airfoil segment includes first composite material and a receptacle. A base of the receptacle is embedded within the first composite material. The second airfoil segment includes second composite material and a key. A base of the key is embedded within the second composite material. The key is mated with the receptacle thereby attaching the second airfoil segment to the first airfoil segment.

A blade antenna comprising: an upper blade element made of conductive, planar material having a profile that curves upwardly from a centrally-located feed point; and a lower blade element made of conductive, planar material having a profile that curves downwardly from the feed point, wherein the lower blade element is configured to be connected to a ground and has a thickness that is at least three times a thickness of the upper blade element, and wherein the curved profiles of the upper and lower blade elements are disposed with respect to one another so as to form a tapered slot on each side of the feed point.

An airfoil system is provided that includes an airfoil. This airfoil includes a first exterior surface, a second exterior surface, a first airfoil segment and a second airfoil segment. The airfoil extends widthwise between the first exterior surface and the second exterior surface. The first airfoil segment includes first composite material and a receptacle. A base of the receptacle is embedded within the first composite material. The second airfoil segment includes second composite material and a key. A base of the key is embedded within the second composite material. The key is mated with the receptacle thereby attaching the second airfoil segment to the first airfoil segment.

A method and apparatus for communicating RF signals is described. In one embodiment, the apparatus is evidenced by a multi-band integrated antenna assembly comprising a blade antenna having a conductive ground plane, a planar antenna array for communicating a second signal, and a signal processor. The planar antenna array transmits and receives signals using a passive Rotman lens beam former that can be utilized in environmentally challenging applications.

A high-gain digitally tuned antenna system comprises a modified swept-back fractal (MSBF) radiator element, with the fractal preferably being a Sierpinski carpet fractal based on a parallelogram. A digital tuning circuit coupled to the radiator comprises an array of inductors which can be selectively connected to form a network which tunes the antenna system to a selected tuning frequency. The system is preferably arranged to selectively connect the inductors in series such that the combined inductances substantially cancel the capacitance of the radiator at a selected tuning frequency. The antenna system is preferably arranged to operate over the 30-88 MHz, 108-174 MHz, and 225-600 MHz bands, with a radiator height of 15″ or less.

A die interconnect system having a first die with a plurality of connection pads, and a ribbon lead extending from the first die, the ribbon lead having a plurality of metal cores with a core diameter, and a dielectric layer surrounding the metal core with a dielectric thickness, with at least a portion of dielectric being fused between adjacent metal cores along the length of the plurality of metal cores, and an outer metal layer attached to ground.

A gasket for placement between a base of an aircraft structure and the underside of a workpiece, such as an aircraft antenna, is disclosed. The gasket has a cured polyurethane elastomeric gel body with a multiplicity of holes therethrough. The body typically has a flat lower surface and upstanding side walls, but the top surface is non-flat. The top surface may have sloped areas or raised tabular areas or a combination. The gel body may also have a skeleton member, such as a flexible metallic screen or other woven member. When the gasket is placed between the aircraft base and the workpiece, threaded on fasteners, and the fasteners torqued down, the non-flat upper surface will flow such that, at proper torque setting, it fully coats and fully covers the underside of the workpiece and, typically, makes contact with the screen or skeleton member, which also makes contact with the upper surface of the base.

The described features include a scalable waveguide architecture for a waveguide device. The waveguide device may be split into one or more waveguide blocks instead of manufacturing increasingly larger single-piece waveguide devices. Described techniques provide for a radio-frequency (RF) seal between such waveguide blocks that may facilitate greater manufacturing tolerances while maintaining an effective RF seal at the junction of the waveguide blocks. The described techniques include channels within one or more waveguide blocks opening to the dielectric gap between the waveguide blocks. The channels may, for each of multiple waveguides joined at the interface between waveguide blocks, be included in one or both waveguide blocks and may be in a single waveguide dimension relative to the multiple waveguides, or extend for more than one waveguide dimensions.