Aerospace data acquisition systems are used for a number of applications, including flight test, operational monitoring, and collecting data from onboard systems and experiments. They typically consist of multiple elements, such as data acquisition units (DAU), recorders, and transmitters.
For many aircraft, there is sufficient space to place these elements in a dedicated instrumentation rack and/or throughout the aircraft. It is advantageous, for example, to place DAUs close to sensors and a transmitter close to the antenna.
However, there are several aircraft where there is a very limited amount of space available to install any hardware. This is particularly true for platforms such as missiles and smaller UAVs, but is also the case for post-production aircraft, especially military jets and smaller rotorcraft.
One solution is to create a dedicated line replaceable unit (LRU), with all the elements optimally integrated into a single package. Unfortunately, such solutions are rarely flexible which can lead to increased time and cost in a program.
This white paper examines the challenges and solutions for implementing a compact data acquisition package, with a particular focus on missiles, and proposes a modular solution to best meet tight space and installation time requirements without compromising system flexibility.
Paul Cook
Director of Missile Systems, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions
Paul Cook is the Director of Missile Systems at Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions. He has 37 years of extensive design and product line experience in Telemetry Systems. He has held engineering and management positions in design and development, embedded encryption, RF subsystems and data links, engineering and business management, and program management. He has 34 years of experience in the telemetry industry and three years in information assurance Type I CCEP certifications. Paul joined Teletronics in 2007 and, in addition, worked in the telemetry Industry for General Dynamics Corporation, Aydin Corporation, and L-3 Communications Corporation. Paul obtained a BS degree from The College of New Jersey and has various postgraduate courses towards an MBA and program management certifications.
Stephen Willis
Product Marketing Manager
Stephen Willis is the aerospace test and measurement Product Marketing Manager at Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering, a Masters in Philosophy for research in mathematical models and their market application for risk assessment, and a PG Dip in marketing and management. His current research interests include data acquisition, recording, and control systems and their applications in enabling a cost-effective route to gather large amounts of data. In particular, applications of interest include flight test, crash-protected recording, and structural/usage monitoring programs. He is the author of several academic papers and magazine articles.
