International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / For the last 30 years Magnetic Tape Systems have been the primary means of recording data from airborne instrumentation systems. Increasing data rates and harsh environmental requirements have often exceeded the ability of tape-based systems to keep pace with technology. Throughout this time data recordings have been made mostly with analog longitudinal systems and most recently with digital recording systems that record on commercial DLT, and super VHS tape media. The recordings are played back with the same type of tape device allowing for the data to be processed and/or archived. Since not all data reduction facilities can process the same type of tape media, often tapes are dubbed from one type of tape media format to another, corrupting the translated data. This paper examines operational and data reduction benefits, and life cycle cost of Solid State Recorders as a replacement for existing airborne tape recorders.