Flight test instrumentation (FTI) is monitoring and recording equipment fitted to aircraft during

flight test Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...

. It is mainly used on

experimental aircraft An experimental aircraft is an aircraft intended for testing new aerospace technologies and design concepts. The term ''research aircraft'' or ''testbed aircraft'', by contrast, generally denotes aircraft modified to perform scientific studies, ...

, prototype aircraft and development aircraft - both military and civil, and can monitor various parameters from the temperatures of specific components to the speed of the engines. This may be displayed in the cockpit or cabin to allow the aircrew to monitor the aircraft in flight, and is usually recorded to allow the data to be analysed later. Axon DAU

FTI typically monitors between 10 and 120000 parameters - for example temperatures inside the cargo and pressure distribution along the wing. FTI sources could be temperature sensors, pressure probes, voltages, current transducers, potentiometers, strain gauges, aircraft data buses or cameras. These sensors may be digitalized and acquired by the

data acquisition Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals that measure real-world physical conditions and converting the resulting samples into digital numeric values that can be manipulated by a computer. Data acquisition systems, abbreviated by the acro ...

system. A cockpit audio recording may also be included. A telemetry transmitter may be added to the FTI to allow real-time monitoring of the tests from a ground-station. A core component of a data acquisition system are the data acquisition units (DAU). These are electronic boxes that interface to FTI sources and are typically designed to be rugged and reliable. The current trend is to make these units as small as possible and move them closer to the sensors. This leads to many challenges for the designers of a data acquisition chassis such as how to cope with inhospitable environments and maintain functionality with smaller designs. For the end user it means shorter wiring, better accuracy and easier installation and maintenance. So called commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems are commonly used to keep costs low and speed delivery. This approach, and indeed the use of FTI originally developed for aerospace applications well within the earth’s atmosphere, is also increasingly common for space launchers and vehicles. More extensive testing and qualification is generally performed to help ensure reliability in the more hostile environments encountered at high altitudes and in space (for example ionizing radiation).

References

External links

Flight Test Instrumentation Engineering 1Flight Test Instrumentation Engineering 2Practical Aspects of Instrumentation System Installation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flight Test Instrumentation Aircraft components