Novel assessment technique for investigating potential phased array effects of passenger aircraft

Signals emitted inside the aircraft by onboard communication systems, e.g. GSM and UWB, propagate on different paths to the outside of the aircraft. In this paper the question is investigated if these signals could be emitted from the aircraft in the manner of a directive antenna or phased array due to the periodicity of the windows, whereby the aircraft itself becomes an aperture antenna. A superposition model is presented to calculate possible radiation patterns. The model was fed with either ideal, coherent excitation or measured phase and magnitude coefficients. The measured data was acquired during a measurement campaign on an Airbus A320 in the frequency range from 450-2100 MHz. The innovative measurement technique to reliably acquire these coefficients is described in detail. No phased array effects were observed at the far field distance.