CORRELATION OF FLIGHT TRACK DATA WITH OTHER DATA SOURCES

• US 20080036659A1
• Filed: 06/05/2007
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ERA Systems Corporation (General Dynamics Corporation)
• Inventors: Smith, Alexander, Cohen, Bennett
• Granted Patent: US 7,612,716 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/454
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/765 with exchange of information between interrogator and responder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/91 for traffic control G01S13/93 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0043 Traffic management of multiple aircrafts from the ground G08G5/003 takes precedence; data processing specially designed for resource management, e.g. scheduling or allocating time, human or machine resources G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0095 Aspects of air-traffic control not provided for in the other subgroups of this main group

Abstract

A method of triangulating aircraft transponder signals using a number of receivers connected to a central station over communication links includes applying at least one logic rule at each receiver to incoming transponder signals to filter redundant transponder signals, time-stamping filtered transponder signals, and transmitting time-stamped transponder signals to the central station. Logic rules include at least one of altitude filtering, Mode S, Mode A/C code filtering, and change filtering. Replies are accepted when a change in state is indicated, such that the only those replies indicating a change in state are time-stamped and sent to the central server.

Claims

1. A method for real-time tracking of aircraft noise, comprising the steps of:

inputting tracking source data from at least one of a multilateration or radar system to produce aircraft position data,

determining flight track of at least one aircraft from broadcast aircraft identification data and aircraft position data,

measuring noise using a noise measuring device, and

correlating measured noise with the flight track in real-time to determine whether the aircraft has exceeded a predetermined noise limit.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

determining if noise measured from the noise measuring device exceeds a predetermined threshold prior to correlating measured noise with the flight track.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a Mode S transponder code from the at least one aircraft, and

identifying the aircraft from the Mode S transponder code.

4. A system for real-time tracking of aircraft noise, comprising:

means for inputting tracking source data from at least one of a multilateration or radar system to produce aircraft position data;

means for determining flight track of at least one aircraft from broadcast aircraft identification data and aircraft position data;

means for measuring noise using a noise measuring device; and

means for correlating measured noise with the flight track in real-time to determine whether the aircraft has exceeded a predetermined noise limit.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

means for determining if noise measured from the noise measuring device exceeds a predetermined threshold prior to correlating measured noise with the flight track.

6. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

means for receiving a Mode S transponder code from the at least one aircraft; and

means for identifying the aircraft from the Mode S transponder code.

7. A method for providing live display of aircraft flight information comprising the steps of:

obtaining aircraft data from at least two of;

aircraft position and flight information from ASDI data source,

aircraft location and identification from multilateration of aircraft transponder data source,

flight information from ACARS data source, and

flight information from an airline flight information system data source,

fusing aircraft data to integrate aircraft information from at least two of the data sources to produce integrated aircraft information, and

providing a real-time display of the integrated aircraft flight information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of providing a live display comprises the step of providing a live display over a network.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of providing a live display comprises the step of providing a live display via at least one physically connected display.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said step of providing a live display comprises the step of providing a live display via at least one cockpit display.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

providing in at least one airport ground vehicle, a means for reporting identification,

determining position and identification of the at least one airport ground vehicle,

fusing airport ground vehicle identification and position data with the integrated aircraft information, and

displaying position of the at least one airport ground vehicle on the display.

12. An apparatus for providing live display of aircraft flight information comprising:

means for obtaining aircraft data from at least two of;

aircraft position and flight information from ASDI,

aircraft location and identification from multilateration of aircraft transponder 1090 MHz transmissions, and

flight information from ACARS;

means for fusing aircraft data to integrate aircraft information from at least two data sources to produce integrated aircraft information; and

a display for displaying the integrated aircraft flight information in real-time.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, the display comprises a display coupled to a network.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, the display comprises at least one physically connected display.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the display comprises at least one cockpit display.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

means for reporting identification of at least one airport ground vehicle;

means for determining position and identification of the at least one airport ground vehicle; and

means for fusing airport ground vehicle identification and position data with the integrated aircraft information,

wherein the position of the at least one airport ground vehicle is displayed on the display.

17. A method of simulating aircraft flight dynamics including on-board instrumentation, based on actual aircraft flight data, said method comprising the steps of:

collecting aircraft position and identification data externally from aircraft surveillance and communications systems,

determining aircraft performance parameters from the externally collected aircraft position and identification data; and

simulating performance of an aircraft on a flight simulator using the aircraft performance parameters.

18. A system for simulating aircraft flight dynamics including on-board instrumentation based upon actual aircraft flight data, comprising:

an aircraft surveillance system for collecting aircraft position data;

a communications system for collecting aircraft identification data;

means for determining aircraft performance parameters from the externally collected aircraft position and identification data; and

a flight simulator, for simulating performance of an aircraft using the aircraft performance parameters.

19. A method for correcting aircraft transponder altitude data, comprising the steps of:

receiving from an aircraft transponder including a pressure sensor, a signal indicating aircraft altitude, the aircraft transponder calibrated to an arbitrary barometric pressure,

receiving from a ground-based pressure sensor of the same type included in the aircraft transponder, a signal indicating the altitude of the ground-based pressure sensor, the ground-based pressure sensor calibrated to the same arbitrary barometric pressure as the pressure sensor included in the aircraft transponder, and

subtracting from the signal indicating aircraft altitude, the signal indicating altitude of the ground-based pressure sensor to determine distance above ground level of the aircraft.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of:

adding the distance above ground level of the aircraft to a predetermined altitude above sea level of the ground-based pressure sensor to determine the altitude above sea level of the aircraft.

21. A system for correcting aircraft transponder altitude data, comprising:

means for receiving from an aircraft transponder including a pressure sensor, a signal indicating aircraft altitude, the aircraft transponder calibrated to an arbitrary barometric pressure;

a ground-based pressure sensor of the same type included in the aircraft transponder for generating a signal indicating the altitude of the ground-based pressure sensor, the ground-based pressure sensor calibrated to the same arbitrary barometric pressure as the pressure sensor included in the aircraft transponder; and

means for subtracting from the signal indicating aircraft altitude, the signal indicating altitude of the ground-based pressure sensor to determine distance above ground level of the aircraft.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

means for adding the distance above ground level of the aircraft to a predetermined altitude above sea level of the ground-based pressure sensor to determine the altitude above sea level of the aircraft.