Development of a New IRIG Standard Flight Recorder

Abstract

An IRIG standard flight recorder has been developed that is based on half-inch helical scan technology. The recorder was developed by combining the data channel of existing ground-based recording systems with transport technology used in both flight test and operational fighter aircraft environments. The design goal was to achieve cross play compatibility with the defined IRIG 106.6 tape format. Significant margins were provided in the design to maintain compatibility with tapes recorded in fighter aircraft environments. Operation at up to 50,000 feet, a temperature range of -40EC to +55EC, and vibration sources to Mil Spec 5400T are requirements in this environment. How these technical problems were overcome during the development of this recorder is addressed in this paper.