Relay-scanning-design technique generates high accuracy and speed in analog-to-digital transducer measurements

Abstract

An accelerated program of flight-testing an aircraft or its power unit it often instrumental in more speedy development of its final design for quantity production. The time rate at which flight-tests can be carried out is rarely dependent on a time-in-the-air factor, but instead hinges on the time required for calculating and computing the data resulting from individual tests. Tremendous amounts of data from many different sources must be reduced and correlated to permit equipment modifications before subsequent tests can take place. When data reduction of analog-type information to be used for computer calculations is performed by manual devices or human beings, the time between individual flight tests often spans a period of days, or even weeks. This does not take into account the increased chance for inaccuracies to occur and the extremely high cost of this type of data-reduction process.1