[horstbort]

Hi, long-time drop tower experimenter here :-) One very good reason to choose a drop tower over the vomit comet is microgravity quality, i.e. residual acceleration and vibrations. The drop tower provides roughly 10^{-6} g, which is a few orders of magnitude better than zero-g aircraft. Another is easy accessibility. You can work on your apparatus until ~2 hours before doing a drop, and you have electronic and mechanical workshops on premises.

Regarding acceleration and deceleration, it's not as bad as it sounds/looks. Most off the shelf component will easily survive, provided you fastened them well enough. Rule of thumb: If it survives shipping by parcel service, it will survive the tower ;-)