On May 13, 1:03 am, frank wrote:
On May 12, 5:13 pm, Andrew Swallow wrote:

Ken S. Tucker wrote:

[snip]

For instance using ADC (Analog to Digital) and DAC
(Digital to Analog) converters going into an Elektronic
Brain....was nearly sci-fi.

It still is sci-fi.

Although nowdays it is the analog side they do not know about.

Andrew Swallow

Not really. We were collecting analog data as late as early 90s. Some
were doing digital , most data was analog. Had to do conversions, did
that on tape systems, read analog tape, created digital tape, ran
digital tape as input to computer systems. I don't know if they do
digital data recordings directly, now, would make sense but there are
reasons not to do it. you can get higher frequency of data with analog
data. highest was FM, could get 1000 samples / sec. Real interesting
looking at realtime data. Usually wouldn't print it until right at
where you needed data. Recorders spit out tons of thermal paper. Fun
to watch. Vast majority was 20 samples / sec at most, which was fine
for analog. I had some data requirements at 10000 cycles / sec, what
they did was run it at 10th of the speed it was recorded at. For some
reason, analog to digital was a 1:1 time write to tape. One hour of
data took one hour to convert to digital record. Then we had to run
the digital tape through some other programs to make sense of it all.
Usually was just a voltage point. Conversion created say acft, tail,
flight #, date, time, mach #, alt and whatnot. Lots of the conversion
literally was a patch board hookup. Flight data reels in raw format
were probably an inch, inch and a half wide, weighed about 50 lbs. One
wasn't bad, two were real strain to carry. Most fighters had one tape
recorder. Easier to do analog data right off of transducers.

Let me guess, corrections invited.
Today, software and computer enhanced flying is
well known to a military pilot. (The rumor that the
F-22's crossing the International dateline caused
the computer - via software glitch - to crash is a
typical example).
In a sense, software removes pilots burden.
When was software first used? I'm guessing it was
1st used to automatically control the F-111 wing
sweep.
Ken