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Nose Radome Anti-Ice


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Several years ago, I recall there was an Air Force TCTO that disabled the (hot) bleed air nose radome anti-icing on most of the USAF C-130s. Supposedly, the hot air system was causing delamination and/or deterioration of the fiberglass layers in the radomes, driving the radome reliability rate down to an unacceptable level.

It seems the new radome that comes on the J-model does not have an anti-icing capability either.

Any feedback from flight crews on icing conditions (?), or was it never really a problem to begin with.

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I don\'t think that icing on the radome is that big of a issue, as far as aerodynamics go. From what I\'ve seen it will only build up on the tip of the radome, in about a 6-8 inch circle, even in the worst of icing. Maybe they were worried about the radar but our 241 low power radar seems to work fine even with ice on the radome.

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Or vice versa

Usually not a problem with our \"lets just put enough power through the radar to light up a city\" energy levels! The brute force technique worked well for Emerson - who had never built a radar, much less a TF radar, before (or since).

In fact, I\'m surprised our energy doesn\'t just melt the ice off itself! :P :lol:

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There are/were two programs running - the AMP was one and the other is/was a funded program with a wider application than just T2. The non-AMP one had some unique capabilities the 241 could not have due to design. I haven\'t received any updates on this one in quite some time (not having SIPR & STU here at the schoolhouse sucks sometimes), but I\'m sure it would require similar icing tests at some point, although I know some applications of it wouldn\'t have an anti-icing capability due to application...

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Not as drastic as you might think.

Only hardened the gears and replaced the motor/tachometer for the existing elevation drive, plus tuning the elevation drive servo amplifier.

The scan rate is controlled--so far, so good.

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tiny clark wrote:

I just don\'t see how you can do TF with an antenna that only sweeps side to side, and not that fast either, unless they changed some hardware along with the software on the 241.

The real trick is multi-tasking - getting both TF/TA sweeps & generating a ground map as well without having the data \"age\" significantly - if understand it correctly, the 241 cannot do that &, in fact, the 241 TF solution is leaning heavily on DTED.

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Since the -241 TF is not on contract for installation on any airplanes, speculating on what the overall capabilities/limitations are way too early. All the TF testing to date has been focused on TF software risk reduction.

However, the development testing has demonstrated that the -241 TF can interleave with two other modes, such as TA and Weather....

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TalonOneTF wrote:

However, the development testing has demonstrated that the -241 TF can interleave with two other modes, such as TA and Weather....

At what refresh rate? IE - how old is my data? A second or two can kill you. The clunky APQ-170 has two radars running concurrently and until we go phased array, I don\'t see how a spinning/tipping antenna can do things quickly enough without relying heavily on DTED.

Not that I\'m knocking DTED, rather, that you have to sacrifice something if you try to do multiple scans with the same antenna. The DTED is a nice \"filler\"

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