Radar and pilots.

This may seem like a silly question but i know that radar can be very harmful to human beings if we get to close to the array. I have just been reading about the f22 radar and how its radar is powerful enough to ''fry'' enemy electronics etc by concentrating on an area. How is the pilot protected from these emmissions while in such close proximity to the radar? I assume that there must be some kind of protective layer around the cockpit or something.

From what ive read, it dosnt exactly 'fry' electronics but kind of scrambles them or jams them. So I dont think they would harm tyhe pilots, though it could interfere with their support systems and cause them to drop out of thew sky like rocks. It would be a great way to conserve ammunition, just fre a pulse at them, shut the engines down and.............................BANG

For radar energy to be that powerful it has to be very highly concentrated. It's probably a beam the size of a pencil. Remember the radar sends RF energy in the form of small, tight beams, or dwells, and doesn't simply blast RF out 360 degrees every time it send out a dwell.

Radars have cutout also. A radar will not radiate into local objects. The old style rotating antennas would turn off for brief periods of time when the antenna swept past parts of the ship, plane, etc. The new phased array radars simply don't radiate in the direction of these objects.

Most fighter radars only project their beams forward. Mabey in a 60 to 90 degree cone. The dishes don't point backwards or behind, that would be useless since the whole point in the fighter is to keep the pointy end facing the enemy.

Back in the old days of working on F-4's, the pilots were supposed to put the radars into standby mode when air refueling. This was to keep from frying the boom operators and causing their kids to have six arms and all.

Simtek, watch out for that Person from Porlock.