High G Impact Resistant Digital Data Recorder For Missile Flight Testing

Traditionally, real time test data from flight testing of missile systems is acquired via radio telemetry. Although telemetry data linking is a well established technology, care is still required when designing this type of instrumentation system. Electrical, mechanical and aerodynamic interferences of the telemetry data link must be carefully considered as the hardware is designed into the test vehicle. Test environments, range conditions and support of elaborate ground based receiving and data reduction stations all add to the complexity and cost of radio telemetry data acquisition. In addition, evolution of many weapon system designs from guided to "smart" to "brilliant" has greatly increased the difficulty in acquiring and tracking an autonomous test vehicle (especially those test programs requiring multiple test vehicles in the air simultaneously). This paper presents the design and testing of a low cost alternative to telemetry based flight test data acquisition; an onboard high G impact survivable Flight Data Recorder (FDR).