Investigation into in-situ shielding effectiveness testing of transport aircraft

Abstract

This paper reviews a research effort to identify, develop, validate, and document an approach for conducting in situ electromagnetic shielding effectiveness testing of commercial aircraft. The goal was to measure transfer functions over as wide a spectrum as possible with the range from 100 MHz to 10 GHz being considered a minimum for success. The method developed decreased the cost of such testing with respect to current test methods and does not require special facilities, unusual test equipment, remote sites, or alteration of the aircraft. In addition, the method is applicable to aircraft in production, maintenance or deployment.