Aircraft health monitoring using optical fiber sensors

Fiber optic technology has been commonly used to construct strain and temperature sensors over the past decade; however, more advanced sensors such as pressure, acceleration and skin friction are needed. This paper reports on the efforts to develop pressure, acceleration and skin friction sensors for use in flight environments, specifically for airborne measurements on board the NASA F-18 Systems Research Aircraft (SRA). Flight testing of these sensors on the SRA will eliminate perceived and real technical barriers of the technology and validate the all-optical instrumentation concept. Successful testing will speed introduction of fiber optic based measurements for development and flight test of advanced vehicles and health monitoring of existing aircraft.