A Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) solution to Air Force aircraft engine test requirements

The Air Force currently uses three test systems to test aircraft engines-the Automated Ground Engine Test System (AGETS), the Engine Test/Trim Automated System (ETTAS), and the Pacer Comet III. All three are based on 1970's and early 1980's technology, and are therefore aging and becoming more difficult to maintain. This is due to obsolescent hardware, some proprietary hardware, and, in some cases, an out-of-date software environment. SA-ALC/LDAD, the engine tester program management office, has placed Sunset Resources, Inc. (SRI) on contract to produce a COTS component replacement study and prototype for the ETTAS. This paper details the COTS solution being developed, using the VXIbus technology. Included are discussions on the decisions and methods used to increase data throughput, both in hardware and software. The paper also discusses the implementation of LabVIEW 4.0 as the test system software environment, and Windows 95 as the operating system. The paper details how we were able to greatly increase the performance of the system over the current ETTAS.