7.4 - Challenges in Design and Development of Indigenous Flight Test Instrumentation System for a High Performance Fighter Aircraft
- Event
- etc2014 - 34. European Telemetry and Test Conference
2014-06-03 - 2014-06-05
Nürnberg - Chapter
- 7. Acquisitions Systems 1
- Author(s)
- V. Madhusudana Rao, K. Singh Chowhan, V. Patel, N. Prasad, P. Subramanyam - Aeronautical Development Agency(ADA), Bangalore (India)
- Pages
- 134 - 139
- DOI
- 10.5162/etc2014/7.4
- ISBN
- 978-3-9813484-7-7
- Price
- free
Abstract
Flight testing phase is a crucial phase of any aircraft development programme. Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) is an important on-board subsystem to validate the design, assess the performance of all other subsystems at various in flight test conditions. It also plays major role in post flight data analysis and leads to obtain aircraft airworthiness certification. Development of flight test Instrumentation system for a high performance fighter aircraft is a challenging task. It demands high reliability to ensure safety apart from design constraints like compactness, light weight, large data handling, high data integrity features and conduction cooled design. FTI system with Open System Architecture provides significant advantages towards ease of maintenance, up gradation, technology insertion, obsolescence mitigation, etc. This paper brings out FTI system with open system architecture and describes challenges faced in finalization of system architecture, selection of technologies, use of appropriate standards or processes for software development, evolving concepts and algorithms to improve system performance, realization of system hardware, test results, etc. Architecture optimization specific to certain requirements and prognosis of the system are discussed in brief. It also brings out challenges in realization of complex test rigs or facilities for functional and performance validation and Ground Support Equipment for ease of system configuration and analysis.