Recent Progress in Low-Dielectric Constant Materials in the Aviation Industry: A Review

Due to an enormous increase in demand for air travel, weather tracking, and domestic defense in the 21st century, the enhancement of aircraft and their components is crucial, now more than ever, to provide safe and comfortable air travel for both the passengers and crew alike. One such component of an aircraft that contributes to delivering safe passage is a radome, a dome-shaped, outer-shell structure that shields an aircraft radar antenna from weather and other environmental hazards such as rain, hail, and bird strikes. This radar antenna detects weather patterns and foreign objects during flight through radio signals and is typically located at the nose, wingtips, or tail of an aircraft. In addition to safeguarding the antenna, a radome must also prevent deterioration of radio signals reaching the antenna by ensuring a smoother transmission. This could be achieved by reducing the dielectric constant of the material. As a consequence, utilizing robust, low-dielectric materials seems to be the most feasible approach in producing aircraft radomes. Therefore, this article provides a review of several relatively new experiments that were conducted to fabricate radomes through robust, low-dielectric materials which could later be successfully employed in the aviation industry.