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EQUIPMENT for measuring vibration in airplane structures and powerplants during actual flight is described in this paper. This development is the result of a cooperative research program carried out by the Bureau of Aeronautics of the U. S. Navy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with contributions of improvements in design and new features by the Sperry Gyroscope Co., Inc. In its essentials, the M.I.T.-Sperry Apparatus consists of a number of electrical pickup units which operate a central amplifying and recording unit. The recorder is a double-element photographic oscillograph. Each pickup is adapted especially to the type of vibration that it is intended to measure and is made so small that it does not appreciably affect the vibration characteristics of the member to which it is attached rigidly. By using a number of systematically placed pickups, all the necessary vibration information on an airplane can be recorded during a few short flights.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is tasked by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to investigate the use of the NEXRAD polarimetric radars* for the remote sensing of icing conditions hazardous to aircraft. A critical aspect of the investigation concerns validation that has relied upon commercial airline icing pilot reports and a dedicated campaign of in situ flights in winter storms. During the month of February in 2012 and 2013, the Convair-580 aircraft operated by the National Research Council of Canada was used for in situ validation of snowstorm characteristics under simultaneous observation by NEXRAD radars in Cleveland, Ohio and Buffalo, New York. The most anisotropic and easily distinguished winter targets to dual pol radar are ice crystals.