This document defines the characteristics necessary to standardize the airborne recorder download file format in order to facilitate data import, transcription, and exchange. A standardized data format will reduce the variety of readout equipment required for airborne recorder data transcription.

This document defines the detailed architecture of the Recorder Standard Output (RSO) file. The architecture is a tagged file structure within which many different files and their formats can be supported. The structure is necessary to support newer recording requirements for flight data, data link, audio, and image recording. This structure is intended for use with all civil recorders and should support use with military recorders.

The RSO file is typically created by one of several methods:

• directly within the recorder

• downloaded raw data converted to an RSO file by a function configured to communicate with the recorder

• data converted to an RSO by post-processing software (e.g., a subset of data extracted from a larger file)