F-16/BRU-55 flight vibration data collection using digital recorders

Recently, a series of flight tests were conducted at Eglin AFB, Florida using on-board stale-of-the-art digital data recorders to measure flight vibration data on the BRU-55 bomb rack The instrumented bomb rack was flown on an F-16 aircraft under worst case operational mission conditions. Tri-axial vibration data were recorded continuously during the flights. The raw data were then post-processed to generate power spectral density profiles for various flight maneuvers. These data were used to develop qualification test specification levels to replace the existing MIL-STD levels. This paper describes the usage of the digital data recorders in collecting flight vibration data. Advantages and disadvantages of the digital recorders are: discussed as compared to telemetry and tape recorders.