Light FTI System – The First Truly Light Wireless System for Flight Test Instrumentation

Abstract

Although wireless instrumentation systems are available for rotating applications, they do not satisfy the real cost, weight and cycles requirements of Flight Test organizations. On the other hand, low weight and low intrusiveness instrumentation equipment are available for industrial measurement e.g. in the frame of Industry 4.0, but those do not cover the measurement requirement for FTI applications, like bandwidth. The Light FTI System is a common development of the Airbus Group. It is a highly innovative MEMS sensor network system based on BLE / UWB wireless technology, which is the first to tick all the boxes of the requirements of FT organizations regarding low weight, low cycle installation, low intrusiveness, high operational autonomy, high operational wireless range, and high bandwidth measurement. Its development has been led in a cooperative manner between the business units of the Airbus Group over several continents. This paper will present the technical challenges of the system as well as the organizational challenges of the development. It will describe the outstanding technical results of the first truly light FTI system, which the FTI community has always been dreaming of.