Plasma aviation antenna

1. An aircraft communications system comprising:

an RF transparent enclosure disposed substantially conformal with a portion of the aircraft;

a plasma antenna element housed within the RF-transparent enclosure; and

a controller operably coupled to the plasma antenna element to provide control of operation of the plasma antenna element,

wherein the plasma antenna element includes one or more RF-conductive plasma devices that are selectively ionizable to a plasma state under control of the controller, and

wherein the controller is configured to control the plasma antenna element to selectively ionize at least two different RF-conductive plasma devices electrically coupled to define a desired effective length of an antenna element.

2. The aircraft communications system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the plasma antenna element to selectively ionize at least two different RF-conductive plasma devices of different effective lengths to define two different operating frequencies.

3. The aircraft communications system of claim 1 , wherein the RF-transparent enclosure is a window of the aircraft.

4. The aircraft communications system of claim 3 , wherein the window is a side window of the aircraft and the controller is configured to enable communication with terrestrial base stations of an air-to-ground (ATG) network.

5. The aircraft communications system of claim 3 , wherein the window is a cockpit window of the aircraft and the controller is configured to enable communication with a satellite of a satellite communication network.

6. The aircraft communications system of claim 3 , wherein the window comprises at least one pane including a receiving opening for receiving the one or more RF-conductive plasma devices.

7. The aircraft communications system of claim 3 , wherein the window comprises an outer pane and an inner pane and wherein the one or more RF-conductive plasma devices are disposed between the outer pane and the inner pane.

8. The aircraft communications system of claim 3 , wherein RF-conductive plasma devices comprise plasma discharge tubes, and wherein the window comprises at least one pane including a receiving opening and the receiving opening contains the gas and is shaped to form the plasma discharge tubes.

9. The aircraft communications system of claim 3 , wherein the window is a modular aircraft window including a fixed outer pane and a removable inner pane, the removable inner pane being removable to enable replacement of the plasma antenna element.

10. The aircraft communications system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the plasma antenna element to perform beam steering.

11. The aircraft communications system of claim 10 , wherein the controller performs beam steering by focusing or blocking portions of a radiation pattern generated by a metal antenna.

12. The aircraft communications system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to control the plasma antenna element to block a selected frequency.

13. An aircraft communications system comprising:

an RF transparent enclosure disposed substantially conformal with a portion of the aircraft;

a plasma antenna element housed within the RF-transparent enclosure; and

a controller operably coupled to the plasma antenna element to provide control of operation of the plasma antenna element,

wherein the plasma antenna element includes one or more RF-conductive plasma devices that are selectively ionizable to a plasma state under control of the controller, and wherein the controller is configured to control the plasma antenna element to transmit a lower frequency from one portion of an array nested within another portion of the array transmitting a higher frequency.

14. A modular aircraft window comprising:

a RF-transparent enclosure disposed substantially conformal with a portion of the aircraft, the RF-transparent enclosure including a fixed outer pane and a removable inner pane;

a plasma antenna element housed within the RF-transparent enclosure; and

a controller operably coupled to the plasma antenna element to provide control of operation of the plasma antenna element,

wherein the plasma antenna element includes one or more RF-conductive plasma discharge tubes that are selectively ionizable to a plasma state under control of the controller, and

wherein the removable inner pane is removable to enable replacement of the plasma antenna element to a selected one of a plurality of preconfigured structures, the preconfigured structures being different from each other relative to a number of the plasma discharge tubes, an orientation of the plasma discharge tubes, or a length of the plasma discharge tubes forming the plasma antenna element.

15. The modular aircraft window of claim 14 , wherein the one or more RF-conductive plasma devices are provided between the fixed outer pane and the removable inner pane.

16. The modular aircraft window of claim 14 , wherein the one or more RF-conductive plasma devices are provided within the removable inner pane.