International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Obtaining a projectile’s free-flight motion profile and its aerodynamic coefficients is typically accomplished at indoor test ranges using photographic techniques synchronized to timing stations. Since these ranges are relatively short, many discrete tests are necessary to compile a complete understanding of the projectile’s behavior. When Time Space Position Information (TSPI) is requested over long-range flights, it has been gathered with expensive video, laser, and radar trackers. These can be inaccurate at times and are limited to locations where the range equipment is able to track the projectile’s entire flight. With the ever-increasing sophistication of ordnance, such as smart and competent munitions that have multi-stage thrusting and maneuvering capability, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make the necessary measurements using current measurement techniques. Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors and other electro-optical and magnetic sensors referenced to the sun and earth allow the projectile’s angular rates (spin, pitch, and yaw) and accelerations (axial and radial) to be measured throughout the flight. These sensors have been packaged into miniaturized telemetry instrumentation systems and placed within empty voids of the munition or in place of the fuze or warhead section. By combining this sensor data with a 6-DOF trajectory code, many of the projectiles aerodynamic coefficients including drag, static moment, and damping moment over a large Mach Number range and over multiple flight paths have been obtained. These techniques decrease the number of test shots required, reduce the complexity of the test setup, and reduce the test costs. Test data from instrumented tank, artillery, and rocket flight tests are presented in this report to show the current capability of making inflight measurements using telemetry-based techniques.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1993 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The increasing complexity and volume of the information needed to support flight test missions has led to a need to expand the capability of current test data management systems. While the abilities currently exist to collect and manage calibration and telemetry information in an automated fashion, new requirements have emerged to link this data with other systems and to expand the functions and devices supported. Coordinating and directing the overall flow of information required for a successful flight test is a very big task. It calls for a view into flight test planning and scheduling activities, test objectives and methods, and the requirements for viewing and processing the test data in real-time and postflight. To meet this challenge, the Automated Test Data Management System (ATDMS) is being developed at the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC), Edwards AFB, California. This paper describes the critical information and interfaces that the ATDMS will manage to bring cohesion to the management of flight test support data.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Shock and vibration testing was performed on the Metrum-Datatape Inc. 32HE recorder to determine its viability as an airborne instrumentation recorder. A secondary goal of the testing was to characterize the recorder operational shock and vibration envelope. Both flight testing and laboratory environmental testing of the recorder was performed to make these determinations. This paper addresses the laboratory portion of the shock and vibration testing and addresses the test methodology and rationale, test set-up, results, challenges, and lessons learned.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Selecting an airborne data acquisition system involves compromises. No single data acquisition system can be at the same time, lowest cost, smallest, easiest to use and most accurate. The only way to come to a reasonable decision is to carefully plan the project, taking into account what measurements will be required, what are the physical environments involved, what personnel and resources will be needed and of course, how much money is available in the budget? Getting the right mix of equipment, resources and people to do the job within the schedule and the budget is going to involve a number of tradeoffs. A good plan and a thorough knowledge of available resources and equipment will allow you make the necessary decisions. Hopefully, this paper will offer some suggestions that will aid in preparing your plan and give some insight into available system alternatives.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) allows us to rapidly develop display and analysis features for the Advanced Data Acquisition and Processing System (ADAPS).

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1988 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / By making use of NC212-200 commuter aircraft as an airborne container, the ADReS, a short for airborne data relay system, had been configured and tested in an experimental status during the year of 1987. A kind of test on EMC, EMI, RFI and telemetry data link were applied to the system. Prior to the IPTN's flight test program in the year of 1988 - 1992, the ADReS is designed not only to receive and to relay the data, but also planed to be able to process the data for quick data analysis purposes on board. This paper describes the ADReS system concept and its experimental status system - the Phase One system configuration.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1987 / Town and Country Hotel, San Diego, California / The Navy's Real-time Telemetry Processing System (RTPS III) is a third generation system. Designed and built by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), RTPS III will support the demands of the Navy flight test community well into the 1990's. The RTPS III is custom-crafted using CSC's system development methodology which blends the best features of the current Navy RTPS system and previously proven CSC systems. A major objective of CSC's RTPS III design is the continuation of existing Navy user interfaces. The transition from the existing system to the integrated RTPS III has also been facilitated by the incorporation of common interfaces to Navy applications software, thus ensuring "new system" acceptance. RTPS III is designed to include a powerful front-end capable of Engineering Unit conversions at more than 200,000 samples per second (sps) per telemetry stream with expansion to 500,000 sps. It will include networking concepts which allow the simple addition of additional subsystems should expansion be required. RTPS III also supports both secure and integrated modes of operation for classified and unclassified processing. The CSC design, a custom combination of proven and new development, results in a Navy system which meets tomorrow's flight test requirements today. Other benefits to NATC are a modular, cost-effective solution with lower life-cycle costs, and a broader range of possibilities for evolving and reconfiguring the system to service new applications and users.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Real-time data processing of telemetry data has evolved from a highly centralized single large scale computer system to multiple mini-computers or super mini-computers tied together in a loosely coupled distributed network. Each mini-computer or super mini-computer essentially performing a single function in the real-time processing sequence of events. The reasons in the past for this evolution are many and varied. This paper will review some of the more significant factors in that evolution and will present some alternatives to a fully distributed mini-computer network that appear to offer significant real-time data processing advantages.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 29-November 02, 1990 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Rapid technology growth in the aerospace industry continues to manifest in increasingly complex weapons systems and system driven weapons systems platforms which must be supported in the flight test environment. This growth in complexity often surpasses the capabilities of many ground based real-time and post-flight processing and display systems, leaving these systems perpetually behind the power curve when compared to data/information processing, presentation and distribution requirements set forth by today’s flight test engineering community. Many flight test programs are accepting less than optimal results from these systems, therefore, the amount of information presently obtained (per flight hour) limits the results acquired during a test program, creating a more costly test and evaluation budget. As an integral participant in the development and testing of high technology aircraft and weapons systems, the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center’s (AFFTC) Advanced Data Acquisition and Processing Systems (ADAPS) development is bridging the gap between requirements and capability by distributing current system architectures to provide incremental performance upgrades in specific areas of need in lieu of entire system replacements. This paper will discuss the current real-time processing, distribution and display capability that exists at the AFFTC and the planned phased upgrade of this tightly coupled system to a more flexible and extensible distributed architecture that will be increasingly responsive to the dynamic nature of test and evaluation of modern weapons systems and weapons systems platforms.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A recurring problem in flight testing navigation systems is the need for an accurate, common time reference for the system under test and for the truth source to which it is compared. Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company and Computer Sciences Corporation have developed software that utilizes all available timing information to reference the times of validity for each navigation measurement to Coordinated Universal Time. This permits accurate comparison and correlation of data necessary for statistical error analysis of the navigation system.