On-Aircraft Radio Test Set

Working to achieve two level avionics maintenance, USAF would like to provide maintenance technicians with a portable RTS to perform go-no-go tests on current (and planned) airborne communications (comm) equipment.This compability would substantially reduce the number of "no fault found" equipment removals and, thereby, the amount of investment in equipment in the logistic chain; this compatiblity would also increase the probability of successful mission launch.The specification for and the practicality of the RTS concept would be established by a combination of reviewing the tech orders for each of the comm systems and of flight line testing several of thse systems using an existing (but limited function) comm test now being built by Tel under a US Army contract.Because the RTS spec will require specific test capabilities for which there are no currently available answers, an important part of this Phase I SBIR will be to identify, define, and develop conceptual designs for these new technical "modules".Assuming that Phase I finds the RTS concept to be practical, these conceptual designs would then be combined into a proposal to design, build, and test an RTS Phase II prototype.