A NEW CONCEPT IS PROPOSED THAT COMBINES THE ADVANTAGES OF NARROW-BEAM OPTICAL SYSTEMS WITH THE LOW BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS OF LOW-FREQUENCY SYSTEMS.

A NEW CONCEPT IS PROPOSED THAT COMBINES THE ADVANTAGES OF NARROW-BEAM OPTICAL SYSTEMS WITH THE LOW BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS OF LOW-FREQUENCY SYSTEMS. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I WORK IS TO PROVE THE TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING AN ACCURATE, COMPACT, SIMPLE, AND HIGHLY RELIABLE OPTICAL VELOCIMETER THAT WILL BE CAPABLE OF MEASURING THE VELOCITY VECTORS OF AIRCRAFT BEING CATAPULTED FROM AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AND THE SPEED AND SINK RATE ON TOUCHDOWN AND ARRESTMENT. THE INITIAL ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL WORK WILL RESULT IN THE PRELIMINARY SYSTEM DESIGN AND IN A DETERMINATION OF THE MAXIMUM OPERATING RANGE AND THE VELOCITY ACCURACY OF THE SYSTEM. THE RESULTS OF PHASE I OF THE RESEARCH SHOULD PROVIDE THE DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS FOR A FULL SYSTEM TO BE BREADBOARDED AND FULLY TESTED IN PHASE II.