DATA RECORDERS FOR BOEING 777 FLIGHT TEST

Abstract

A family of data recorders are being developed for use by the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company in flight testing the 777 airplane. The intention is to have a family of recorders which all have the same interface to the recording and monitor systems but have vastly different data rates and capacities. At this time two recorder systems are being developed. The large recorder will be an Ampex DCRSi with a custom interface for the new data acquisition system. The small recorder will be an Exabyte Model 8500 with a similar interface to the one being used in the DCRSi. An intermediate recorder may be developed if the economics of the system show that it would be cost effective but, it is not presently under development. This paper discusses the recorders, the modifications necessary to develop the interfaces and the interfaces themselves for both the large and small recorders.