FLIGHT EXPERIENCE WITH LIGHTWEIGHT, LOW-POWER MINIATURIZED INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEMS

Engineers at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility (NASA-Dryden) ha ve conducted two flight research programs with lightweight, low-power miniaturized instrumentation systems built around commercial data logg ers. One program quantified the performance of a radio-controlled mode l airplane. The other program was a laminar boundary-layer transition experiment on a manned sailplane. The purpose of this article is to re port NASA-Dryden personnel's flight experience with the miniaturized i nstrumentation systems used on these two programs. This article will d escribe the data loggers, the sensors, and the hardware and software d eveloped to complete the systems. It also describes how the systems we re used and covers the challenges encountered to make them work. Examp les of raw data and derived results will be shown as well. For some fl ight research applications where miniaturized instrumentation is a req uirement, the authors conclude that commercially available data logger s and sensors are viable alternatives. In fact, the data loggers and s ensors make it possible to gather research-quality data in a timely an d cost-effective manner.