A Grumman Gulfstream III (G-III) business jet has been modified and instrumented by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center to serve as a multi-role cooperative research platform testbed for a variety of flight research experiments. The twin-turbofan aircraft provides long-term capability for efficient testing of subsonic flight experiments for NASA, the U.S. Air Force, other government agencies, academia, and private industry. The aircraft, which carried the military designation of C-20A, was obtained from the U.S. Air Force in 2003.
NASA Dryden's G-III is equipped with a self-contained on-board Data Collection and Processing System (DCAPS). This embedded instrumentation system allows for automated configuration setups to reduce required engineering support for each mission. It includes primary and backup systems to assure mission reliability, with the backup system available for use concurrently as a slave system when needed. DCAPS is designed to allow easy upgrades, addition of add-on systems for expansion, and to operate in both autonomous and manual modes.
[Text and Photo from the NASA Dryden Research Center home page,
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/research/G-III/ ]
Group: Platform_Details
Entry_ID: GULFSTREAM III
Group: Platform_Identification
Platform_Category: Aircraft
Short_Name: GULFSTREAM III
End_Group
Creation_Date: 2008-07-15
Online_Resource: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/research/G-III/index.html
Online_Resource: http://www.gulfstream.com/
Sample_Image: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/images/content/140766main_G-III-1.jpg
End_Group (en)