A compact thermal control system for aircraft avionics pod cooling

A typical fighter aircraft must fly numerous different missions. One way to adapt the aircraft with different capabilities is to attach an avionics (electronics) pod below the aircraft with mission specific electronics contained in the pod. In this way, attaching a particular pod configures the aircraft for that particular mission. However in using a pod, there are size, weight and electrical consumption constraints. In addition, the cooling of the electronics contained in the pod is usually given very little space and power. In fact, cooling systems are typically delegated to the back of the pod, since the antenna for the electronics must look out the front. Certain electronics must be cooled to maintain an operating temperature near ambient whereas other components such as the antenna must be cooled but they can operate at much higher temperatures. The heat pump thermal control system described in this paper makes use of the fact that while all the electronics must be cooled, not all the electronics are temperature sensitive. This system provides cooling below the heat rejection temperature for temperature sensitive components and cooling above the heat rejection temperature for the remaining components that must be cooled, but can tolerate a much higher temperature