626. STOW – A Proven Full Capability Integral Weight and Balance System
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Paper
Abstract
As early as 1959, Cleveland Pneumatic’s new engineering organization located in Grand Rapids, Michigan began laboratory testing of instrumentation concepts deemed best suited for application to an automatic integral weight and balance system for aircraft. By 1960, tests centered around their newly developed solid-state deflection sensor and, by 1961, highly accurate and repeatable results were being obtained with this sensor when installed in the axles of test C-130 main and nose landing gear and 707 main landing gear.
Based upon these results, Cleveland Pneumatic made a proposal to the Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, on test of weight and balance systems for USAF C-130 aircraft.
The 463L Group of the Aeronautical Systems Division issued a contract in 1963 which covered installation arid Air Force Category II and III test programs on two systems. The Category II test program conducted in 1963 was comprehensive. It included tests involving hard landings, soft tires, soft oleo struts, soft ground, Irregular ground, sloped runways, hard braking and exposure to wind. Category II test results established that this new weight and balance system, designated STOW (System for Take-Off Weight), was a full capability integral aircraft weight and balance system. Accuracy of the indications of gross weight and center of gravity (expressed as Percent of Mean Aerodynamic Chord) was in excess of 99%, with all test results referenced against a highly accurate platform scale.
