A digital data acquisition and reduction system for flight testing general aviation aircraft

Abstract

testing of light general aviation ajrcraft. The Dackaxe has been assembled from offthe-shelf-components and is intcnded for use in aircrafr, where mininium weight and must plan future tests or courses of action based on results of a just completed flight. Motivated by the need to reduce time consuming, costly delays from flight test Drogriims and to acnuire the hinhest auali'cv hat; possible, t he 'Aeronautical and .istr*o-" nautical Research L aboratory (AARI.) has low power requirements are of primary concern. The design objectives for the pack.. age were to provide an accurate, timel.y, and rela.tively low cost data acquisition and reduction system for flight test air- is operational in its ground-based mode; craft environments while maintaining flexi- the in-fliczht owrational mode is to bedesigned and implcmerited a Digital Data AcGuisltion and RedGction Svstem (DDARS) for: fljght testina: light general aviitinn aircraft. The DDARS has been assembled and bility in application, rellability in performance, and a capability for in-fli%ht daLa reduction. Discussion of the design tested in 'ihe nkar future. The focus here will be on a discussion of the system deconstraints and objectives which were met and those which had to be compromised is presented. A complete system descriptlon .at both the hardware and software levels is included.