Military Sensors Acceleration

Flight Data Recording

Commonly called the Black Box, the flight data recorder stores information for investigating accidents, analyzing air safety issues and tracking engine performance. It is a key airline industry safety innovation, and is mandatory in civil aircraft. Flight recorders are designed to withstand high speed impact and intense heat.

The LCF-3150 accelerometer offers three axis flight recorder sensing in accordance with ARINC542A specifications. The accelerometer is configured to provide vertical, longitudinal and lateral acceleration data over a -55C to +85C temperature range in the presence of 5 grms random vibration. The LCF-3150's 1000 g shock capability ensures survival in the event a high shock loading should occur.

Missile Guidance

Smart weapons rely on integrated missile guidance systems to deliver strikes accurately and evade enemy detection systems. Accelerometers are an essential component of these systems. The accelerometers collect the input data utilized by the guidance control computer for course correction and flight stability so that the missile will reach its intended target.

The LCA-215 accelerometer can deliver accurate 0 to 10 g acceleration information in a high vibration 25 grms environment. A specially engineered servo loop includes frequency rejection, enabling an accurate output in the midst of the random vibration and associated acoustic noise.

Aircraft Flight Testing

Flight testing is performed to evaluate the flight characteristics of an aircraft and to validate its design. Once the flight test data requirements are established, the aircraft is instrumented to record data for analysis. The testing can range from measuring the performance of a minor existing system modification to complete development and certification testing of a new aircraft. Since flight testing can be particularly dangerous work with the objective of acquiring the most accurate possible engineering test data, highly accurate and reliable instrumentation is required.

The LCA-5080 accelerometer is custom designed to meet flight test instrumentation requirements with 18 to 32 Volt dc aircraft input power, a precisely scaled output to deliver the highest fidelity test data and specially configured filtering to distinguish the desired performance information from mechanical and aerodynamic noise. Additionally, the LCA-5080 is particularly rugged, allowing it to be moved from aircraft to aircraft and test to test without special handling or undue concern regarding accelerometer damage from transportation or mishandling.