Survey of Design of Experiments (DOE) Projects In Developmental Test CY07 -08

Since 1997 in Air Combat Command's 53d Wing, the US Air Force has been promoting the use of design of experiments as the preferred method of constructing and analyzing test programs. This paper serves to introduce some of the key ideas of experimental design, briefly outlines its use more than 30 pilot projects in the 46 th Test Wing, and looks in more detail at three test projects representing the broad span of developmental test - electronic warfare hardware in the loop, ground test arena weapon pressure and instrumentation performance, and flight test gun and sensor accura cy performance . We conclude that DOE can be used to great profit in every problem where we have attempted to apply its principles, that it results in efficient and effective test programs, even in the face of difficult and noisy test problems, and that of ten (not always) the savings achieved by properly sizing a test program can be dramatic.