We’re getting our atmospheric research aircraft ready for a summer of science projects. The first of these, CARES, looks at how natural sulphur affects the marine environment. The aircraft will head to Ireland in May to collect samples from seasonal phytoplankton blooms in the northeast Atlantic. In July, we’ll be in the Alps for the TEAMx project to see what happens to air in the atmosphere as it’s pushed upwards by mountainous terrain. 

Person wearing a high visibility jacket stood on step ladder. Person is inspecting instruments on wing of blue and white research aircraft.

A FAAM scientist checks one of the wing-mounted cloud imaging probes.

We reconfigure the aircraft between campaigns so that scientists can get the most useful information for their research projects. Most of the time these reconfigurations use instruments that have flown on the aircraft before, but sometimes brand new instruments are introduced and these are more complicated to fit. The projects this summer are the first time some of the instruments being developed through the Mid-Life Upgrade programme will be used for scientific research. 

This process is known as the Aircraft Modification Programme, or AMP. February’s AMP will be the 29th since the aircraft’s first science flight in 2004! 

The FAAM aircraft is modular

Although the aircraft has a science payload of four tonnes, we have a lot more than four tonnes of instrumentation that can be used for science projects. Not all our instrumentation can be fitted to the aircraft at the same time, so we change the aircraft’s instruments between projects to make sure that we’re taking the right equipment for the science we want to do.

Usually, flights for a specific project are grouped together in the same time period. We need each flight to be as efficient as possible, which means only carrying instruments that will be used for that project. Sometimes, we’ll load the aircraft with instruments for several projects at once, to achieve “more science per flight”.

How do we decide what instruments we need?

FAAM maintains and operates a suite of instruments which fly with the aircraft most of the time. These cover a range of key atmospheric measurements, from turbulence to air temperature to humidity. Alongside the equipment maintained by FAAM, we can carry instrumentation that belongs to or is managed by other organisations. 

Person wearing a lab coat stood working on instrument rack inside a laboratory.

Checking the instruments on a rack before it’s fitted to the aircraft.

Once we know what projects the aircraft will be involved in, we see what instruments have been requested by the scientists. Instruments are usually housed in science racks, special frames that fit into the seat rails on the aircraft. A rack can weigh as much as 227kg and, depending on where it’s positioned inside the aircraft, affects how the aircraft is balanced. The overall weight of the aircraft also impacts how much fuel we use, so our engineers need to know exactly how much each rack weighs and where it needs to be on the aircraft.

Reconfiguring the aircraft

The AMP process isn’t as simple as unplugging one instrument and plugging another one in – there’s a lot of planning involved. The actual instrument changeover itself can take between two weeks and a month, but preparing for an AMP takes much longer than that! The scientists who are using the facility apply to work with us, and these applications are often submitted up to two years in advance. As part of this application, scientists will specify what they’ll be measuring and what equipment they would need for this. If what they need isn’t already available from our existing instrument suite, we can start the process of adding a new instrument to the aircraft.

T minus >10 months: A new instrument or installation is requested. Our operational and support partners review the request to see if it can be fulfilled.

T minus 8 months: The instrument is developed and the Technical Specification for Scientific Equipment (TSSE) is prepared.

T minus 1 month: The instrument is delivered to FAAM for inspection and ground testing. During this, the instrument is installed onto the aircraft for a trial fitting and to check its compatibility with our science systems. 

T minus 3 weeks: The cabin is formally surveyed with all new instruments/racks installed. Operational partners sign off on the final layout.

T minus 1 week:  The new instrument is signed off for installation and operation as part of the latest configuration.

T = 0: and ready to fly science missions! The aircraft is flown in its new configuration, and the new instrument is tested in flight to check it works as expected and data is produced.

T plus 2 weeks: We have a washup with all stakeholders involved in the AMP to pick up on any learnings, process improvements and development of best practices to support future AMPs.

Once we’ve completed the AMP, we’ll be back in the skies for a summer of science projects. Keep an eye out for more details on these, and for the new measurement capabilities we’ll have!