Introduction to Airborne Radar
Introduction to Airborne Radar is the revision of the classic book privately published by Hughes Aircraft Company in 1983. Lavishly produced in full color, the book was quite unlike any commercially published radar book produced by the major technical publishers. The combination of clear, understandable writing and the unparalleled illustrations established the text-reference as a 'must-have' for engineers, technicians, pilots, and even sales and marketing people within the radar and aerospace industry. The book was authored by veteran Hughes engineer and Technical Manager George W. Stimson, a publications specialist. Individual chapters were thoroughly reviewed by the appropriate experts within the Hughes Radar Systems Group. The book was initially available 1983-1987 only to those within the Hughes family: employees and customers, primarily the military. Restriction was lifted in 1987. Hughes went through three printings and 40,000 copies 1983-1993, mostly by word-of-mouth testimonials and demand. Upon retirement from Hughes, George Stimson successfully negotiated for the rights to the book and made an agreement with SciTech Publishing to do a major revision of the text to update it. The resulting Second Edition has been overwhelmingly positive and a best-seller. Second Edition The revision is extensive: thirteen entirely new chapters cover the technological advances over the fifteen years since publication, two chapters considered obsolete have been deleted entirely, three chapters are extensively rewritten and updated, two chapters have been given new sections, and fourteen chapters have been given minor tweaks, corrections, and polishing. The book has grown from 32 chapters to 44 chapters in 584 efficiently-designed pages. Efforts have been made to bring more even-handed coverage to radars developed outside of Hughes Aircraft, while older and less important Hughes radars have been deleted or abbreviated. Chapter 44 catalogs many of the cutting edge radars in functioning aircraft and near-service aircraft in early stages of production. The book's appeal is to a diverse audience: from military pilots and radar officers eager to gain a sound technical understanding of the complex systems that their lives depend upon, on up through technicians, marketing, and sales people, to the radar system design specialists, who may 'know all that stuff' but who deeply admire the expression and thus use the book to teach others who have questions. The market encompasses companies directly involved in the radar business and those on the periphery, college professors of engineering and physics themselves, along with students in aviation, aeronautics, and electromagnetics and radar courses. The cross-disciplinary and multi-level demand for the book shows that the book should not be pigeon-holed as just a radar book for electrical engineers. Virtually anybody with a knowledge of high school algebra, trigonometry, and physics will be able to read and absorb most of the material.
Why Read This Book
You should read this book if you want a visually rich, practical introduction to how airborne radar systems work and how their signal processing is designed and applied; you will learn core radar concepts explained with clear intuition, real-world examples, and exceptional illustrations that make complex ideas accessible. It’s especially valuable if you want to connect radar physics with DSP techniques—waveform design, pulse compression, Doppler processing, and detection—so you can reason about system tradeoffs and engineering decisions.
Who Will Benefit
Engineers and technically-minded practitioners (early-career to mid-career) working on radar or communications signal processing, system designers, test engineers, and program managers who need clear, practical grounding in airborne radar concepts and processing techniques.
Level: Intermediate — Prerequisites: Basic calculus and linear algebra, signals & systems (continuous/discrete-time), introductory probability and random processes, and familiarity with Fourier methods; familiarity with basic communications or DSP concepts is helpful but not required.
Key Takeaways
- Explain the fundamental principles and operational modes of airborne radar, including geometry, platform effects, and system trade-offs.
- Design and analyze radar waveforms and matched filters, including pulse compression techniques to improve range resolution and SNR.
- Apply Doppler processing, MTI techniques, and FFT-based spectral analysis to detect and discriminate moving targets amid clutter.
- Implement detection strategies and thresholding (including CFAR concepts) and understand basic statistical signal processing for radar detection.
- Assess clutter, propagation, and antenna/beamforming impacts on system performance and choose appropriate mitigation strategies.
- Outline the basics of target tracking and estimation relevant to airborne systems (including principles used in Kalman-filter based trackers).
Topics Covered
- 1. Introduction to Airborne Radar: roles, history, and system overview
- 2. Radar Fundamentals: range, Doppler, resolution, and SNR
- 3. Airborne Geometry and Platform Considerations
- 4. Waveforms and Modulation: pulsed, CW, pulse-Doppler, and FMCW
- 5. Pulse Compression and Matched Filtering
- 6. Doppler Processing, MTI, and Clutter Suppression
- 7. Digital Signal Processing for Radar: FFT, spectral analysis, and digital filters
- 8. Detection Theory and Thresholding (including CFAR)
- 9. Antennas, Beamforming and Spatial Processing
- 10. Clutter, Propagation, and Environmental Effects
- 11. Target Tracking and Estimation Basics
- 12. System Performance, Testing, and Practical Design Considerations
- Appendices: mathematical tools, typical radar parameters, reference tables
Languages, Platforms & Tools
How It Compares
Covers similar introductory ground to Skolnik's Introduction to Radar Systems but is more visually oriented and practical for airborne applications; it complements Richards' Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing by offering broader system-level intuition rather than modern, MATLAB-centric algorithm depth.
