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 The Lockheed Martin JSF team launched the JSF Mission Systems Integration Laboratory in Fort Worth by testing sensor subsystems and how they integrate in the overall JSF avionics package. A full-scale mockup of the LM JSF aircraft mounted on a forty-foot tower contains embedded sensors connected to commercial off-the-shelf processors and a remote cockpit station for pilot-in-the-loop operation.
The mock-up, which rotates on the tower, collects free-space data in a real-world environment consisting of flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport twenty miles away, the adjacent Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, and several other nearby airfields. A variety of surface “targets” are also offered within direct view, including traffic on two local interstate highways and recreational boats on a neighboring lake.
The facility evaluates individual sensor subsystems, both hardware and software, and how they function when integrated in the overall JSF mission system, or avionics, architecture. Suppliers can evaluate data on their subsystems at several stages in the design process to refine their hardware and software, as well as to verify and update computer simulation models of their subsystems. High-fidelity system design can then be iterated in a laboratory environment, thereby reducing the need for more costly flight testing. |
