Instrumentation System to Measure Ship Motion/Airwake

The air disturbance created by a ship's deck and superstructure known as airwake constrains aircraft-ship interaction to varying size safe operating envelopes. Airwake phenomena has been studied and analyzed using wind tunnel models and computer simulation but present day practice still requires ship-aircraft dynamic interface (Dl) tests. The technical objective of Phase I is to design a practical instrumentation system which will provide comprehensive quantitative and qualitative data for ship motion measurements and airwakes surveys used to complement Dl testing. Task 1 of the project will establish the system requirements through meetings and research. A survey of applicable motion, air flow, and ancillary sensors is performed in Task 2. Task 3 is a survey of data acquisition systems and supporting equipment. Task 4 develops a software specification and performs a survey of available software. The design developed in Task 5 culminates hardware and software specifications, design drawings, and test and operations plans to be used in the Phase II development and testing.