12 SOUND AND VIBRATION/OCTOBER 2006 New Concepts in Aircraft Ground

A collaborative demonstration and development test was performed on a 737-200 transport airplane, during October 2003. The objective was to demonstrate, develop, or explore several concepts that offer promise of breakthrough efficien-cies in the modal testing of airplanes, or ground vibration test-ing. Participants from an aircraft manufacturer, a university, and measurement hardware and software vendors conducted the test. Concepts were explored in instrumentation, sensor setup, excitation, and data processing – some of which are laboratory proven but new in application to full-scale airplane testing. Briefly summarized, the results show potential for sig-nificant timesaving (over current practice) in situations where test requirements permit. The project described in this article was devoted to demon-strating new technology and exploring concepts, which, if no