Electromagnetic penetration studies for three different aircraft

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has completed electromagnetic penetration studies on three different aircraft for the Federal Aviation Administration. In these studies, we measured cavity coupling characteristics between antennas placed at various angular positions around an aircraft and determined the field uniformity within these cavities with antennas placed in various compartments inside the aircraft. This paper shows how penetration varies as a function of frequency, antenna type, antenna polarization, and cavity susceptibility for three different aircraft types, a commercial airline jet, a business jet, and a composite aircraft. We also report the quality factor and time decay of fields for internal coupling between two antennas placed in the aircraft at different locations.