This paper gives an overview of development and prototyping of a radio interface designed for high data rate Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) using a top down approach. An aerospace application of this work is presented to underline the importance of rapid and flexible prototyping. Single Carrier Frequency division multiple Access (SC-FDMA), with a very low Peak Average Power Ratio (PAPR), is a promising alternative to the OFDM scheme for highly power constraint applications, however, it is still not well explored. The chosen radio interface will be tested by means of Electronic System Level (ESL) synthesis and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) prototyping. The ESL development is based on the tool "Synplify DSP", which allows quick prototyping and makes it possible to do real measurements, thus increasing the knowledge about the propagation channel to update the model and algorithm.