Posted by John Keller
WICHITA, Kan., 26 March 2010. The Aeroflex Inc. Test Solutions Group in Wichita, Kan., is introducing the ALT-8000, the RF-based portable radio altimeter flight line test and measurement set, an inexpensive, portable simulator for testing radio altimeters installed in aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The ALT-8000 lightweight universal test set, which is for 4.3 GHz frequency modulated continuous carrier wave (FMCW) radio altimeters and pulse radio altimeters, has a 12-inch color touch screen.
Until now, flight line test sets have not been RF-based and have only tested the analog or digital back-end of the receiver via test port signal injection, company officials say.
The ALT-8000 may be directly coupled to the radio altimeter transmitter/receiver (TX/RX) ports or may be connected via supplied TX/RX antenna couplers, which accommodate most aircraft antenna variants.
RF simulation of radio altitude from -100 feet to +50,000 feet (+/- 1.5 foot accuracy) is provided and altitude rate may be set to provide a smooth ramping altitude simulation to verify decision heights and altitude trips, for auto-land systems and altitude data feed to enhanced ground proximity warning systems (EGPWS).
As many as three ALT-8000 test sets may be linked via an altitude sync line for executing 2- or 3-channel coordinated altitude simulation for dual or triple installation auto-land system testing. The RF looped test verifies TX frequency, power, sweep rate; the RF level control provides the means to test the UUT sensitivity.
For more information contact Aeroflex Test Solutions online at www.aeroflex.com/ats.
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