Two laser-based optical displacement measurement systems are used to record surface contours of a lightweight structure under load without affecting it. A draw-wire displacement sensor also measures the movement of a movable subframe with 19 reference points over a meter. This allows deformation to be recorded at all loading stages as high precision data from the sensors is acquired by a PC for analysis. The optoNCDT and WDS systems were selected for their high accuracy, ruggedness, ease of use, and price/performance ratio, with the optoNCDT also enabling non-contact measurement with a visible laser and high spatial resolution.