AATIA & CAIS GROUND SUPPORT

Abstract

The Advanced Airborne Test Instrumentation System (AATIS) was developed by the Air Force to satisfy its flight-test mission needs through the 1990s. The Common Airborne Instrumentation System (CAIS) is a tri-service development aimed at providing a common airborne data acquisition system for all DoD flight-test programs into the next century. Both AATIS and CAIS include ground support equipment which performs the primary functions of documenting the instrumentation system, generating and loading the telemetry data formats, and performing instrumentation system diagnostics. The AATIS and CAIS ground systems will each support both the AATIS and the CAIS airborne systems. The AATIS ground system also supports the older ATIS airborne systems. The approach taken by the two ground support systems is similar but the scope of functionality is larger in the AATIS ground system because it needed to respond to the more extensive ground support requirements of the Air Force users. This paper provides a brief description of both ground systems and discusses the issues of commonality and interoperability.