Flightester,
Good luck with your project, if you feel any need for an instrumentation photographer ( cine' pods/ onboard + handheld, A-A etc ) let me know !
From the top of my head I can't think of a truly effective system to counter the 'sharp impact' problem - apart from Ultrasound testing which will probably be constant for initial flight trials, but it's the 'routine' flying which seems a possible achilles heel - I very much hope NOTHING like that of the Comet !
A few things spring to my late night even more feeble mind; maybe a paint finish which will readily show witness marks of any impact ( not just birds, but errant vehicles on the ground etc )- but I am aware of what a problem paint erosion is when using soft RAM paint, could the main structure be instrumented with stress / shock monitoring strips - solar power with battery back-up would seem a good bet for 24 hour cover - and video cameras covering the underside & upper surface & engines of an aircraft ( with a recorder of course ) have already shown their use in real time to aircrew, let alone technician playbacks during turnrounds / overnights ???
How about a shock sensor recorder, coupled with as much overall camera coverage as possible, to enable playback if a shock has been sensed ?
May well just end up like a car alarm with frequent spurious warnings, particularly unless the aircraft is hangared - but I'm sure there's a way, as I say it's late here and I'm probably not firing on all cylinders.
The camera views meanwhile could be made available to passengers too, who are generally interested in what's going on, and not as thick as some cabin crew would wish ! Certainly of use in early flight testing of course.
Just a few ramblings, but I'm glad we seem to agree in the end - DZ