DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A TOTAL FLIGHT TEST SYSTEM

Abstract

This paper describes the overall system design and performance characteristics of a complete telemetry system for a new flight test center which Loral Data Systems is currently under contract to provide to a European government. The system encompasses subsystems for airborne data acquisition and flight line check-out, a mobile ground telemetry system, and a fixed facility. The fixed facility includes a ground telemetry system for real time data processing and test control, and a data processing system for postflight analysis. The system represents a fully integrated approach to flight test systems which addresses the end-to-end requirements from airborne data acquisition and real time flight monitoring through aircraft performance and stability/control analysis. The architecture of the ground systems illustrates how preprocessing can be utilized to create powerful real time telemetry systems even with modest general purpose computer capability.