OVERVIEW OF AN INTEGRATED INSTRUMENTATION DATA SYSTEM USED BY THE F-35 LIGHTNING II FLIGHT TEST PROGRAM

Abstract

The Joint Strike Fighter program is the largest DOD contract ever awarded. There are three F-35 Lightning II variations, each intended to meet the specific needs of the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and U.S. Allies. The Data System required for this flight test program challenged the conventional ways used in instrumenting test aircraft. Typical data systems available today don’t provide the level of hardware and software integration required for today’s complex applications. For example, cockpit control panels, recording systems, TM transmitters, data acquisition systems and avionic bus interface units are all independent systems. Additionally, avionic bus catalogs, ground-based systems, and flight setup software have historically been independent components. This paper will describe the hardware and software components used by the F-35 flight test program to provide an integrated system. A special emphasis will be given to the methods used to accommodate rapid changes to the IEEE-1394B avionic bus catalog including the acquisition of that data, and the use of an IRIG-106 Chapter 10 distributed multiplexer / recorder system, which is being used simultaneously as a data acquisition system.