The HP system acquires all digital and analog data and sends it to the PC network for processing. Data is regularly reduced to coefficient form for engineering application within one or two minutes after completion of a standard test run. Plots of report quality and digital tabular data are immediately available. This combination of equipment and appropriate software provides a capability for the acquisition and analysis of force and moment data from either internal or external balance systems or combinations thereof. A number of programs are available to incorporate all of the customary corrections applied to aircraft model testing including tare, alignment, and interference data.
Software also exists for pressure tests involving several hundred pressure measurements.
In addition to obtaining raw data, pressures are readily computed into coefficient form for each use and reference. The presentation of data in coefficient form resolved to several appropriate axes, is immediately available. The data reduction process reduces data to coefficient form and applies corrections to remove unwanted effects due to test conditions and techniques. Data are first reduced to coefficient form by dividing by dynamic pressure and a characteristic area for forces and area and length for moments. Data are collected with all moments resolved about the center of the test section, known as the balance center.