High-data-rate radar cross-section instrumentation system

This paper describes a high-data-rate radar cross-section (RCS) measurement system especially designed for high-angular precision and direct digital recording on magnetic tape. Particular features of this system include semiautomatic control to expedite the measurements sequence while preserving human supervision, optical indexing of model azimuth, and center of gravity adjustment on the model to suppress dynamic errors. The magnetic tape records, together with the ease and precision with which polarization and target roll angle can be set to predetermined values, make the generation of data feasible in quantities suitable for computing machine processing. This permits cross-plotting in various ways, and provides sets of curves which graphically demonstrate the effect of polarization or orientation variations on RCS.