OVERVIEW A Boeing 747SP aircraft was modified by L-3 Communications Integrated Systems to accommodate a 2.5 meter reflecting telescope as part of the SOFIA program. SOFIA, the largest airborne observatory in the world, is a collaborative effort of NASA and DLR, the German Aerospace Center. Because major structural modifications were made to the aircraft to accommodate the telescope and supporting equipment, a ground vibration test (GVT) to characterize the dynamic properties of the aircraft was required. L-3 performed detailed finite element analysis of the modified aircraft, and ATA conducted the GVT, providing all of the instrumentation and data collection and analysis systems and working side by side with L-3 analysis engineers to compare test and analysis results in preparation

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