The Iterative Path to Credibility and Acceptance of IADS® Analyses

Abstract

Often, when IADS is new to a particular group of flight test professionals, the subject of credibility comes up. Companies that produce, test and certify aircraft usually possess established tools and methods for monitoring and analyzing flight test data. It can be difficult to justify augmenting or replacing a proven set of tools with a new, more efficient set without rigorous scrutiny of the new toolset's capability, ease of use and accuracy of output. This natural, repeated challenge to the credibility of IADS' analysis algorithms can lead to improved algorithms and also enhance the understanding of their purpose. Users have made a large contribution to these algorithms by questioning the analytical results of IADS. IADS Developers have also challenged their own algorithms to improve the product. This paper documents some of these challenges to the accuracy of IADS mathematics and the background research and user input that went into correcting and refining them.