Development of a mobile research flight test support capability

This paper presents the approach taken by the NASA Western Aeronautical Test Range (WATR) of the Ames Research Center to develop and utilize mobile systems to satisfy unique real-time research flight test requirements of research projects such as the advanced fighter technology integration (AFTI)F-16, YAV-8B Harrier, F-18 high-alpha research vehicle (HARV), XV-15, and the UH-60 Black Hawk. The approach taken is cost-effective, staff efficient, technologically current, and provides a safe and effective research flight test environment to support a highly complex set of real-time requirements including the areas of tracking and data acquisition, communications (audio and video) and real-time processing and display, postmission processing, and command uplink. The development of this capability has been in response to the need for rapid deployment at varied site locations with full real-time computations and display capability. This paper will discuss the requirements, implementation and growth plan for mobile systems development within the NASA Western Aeronautical Test Range.