Thermal design of aerospace systems

As a result of successful efforts to improve electronic circuit performance, the power densities of components have increased significantly. These trends have to be matched by improvements in thermal management and cooling techniques if higher operating temperatures and poorer reliability are to be avoided. The author describes one of the most challenging thermal problems: the cooling of a military system in a hostile natural environment and he emphasises the importance of a multi-disciplinary, analytical approach to the complete system thermal design at an early stage of the project