Aircraft Communication System

• US 20120214420A1
• Filed: 04/20/2012
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG
• Original Assignee: Pilatus Flugzeugwerke AG
• Inventors: O'Connor, Daniel, Cervia, Bruno, Milns, Robert, Gibson, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,909,158 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/66.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0008 with other aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service

Abstract

An aircraft communication system and corresponding method for establishing a datalink network between participating aircrafts, wherein each participating aircraft comprises a datalink transponder for sending and receiving standard communication messages (M) over a standard communication protocol; said datalink transponders are employed for establishing said datalink network using a standard communication protocol, and wherein said datalink transponders transmitting event driven messages (M) with a predefined structure identifying said messages (M) as test messages (TM) and at the same time comprising message data (MD) for establishing said datalink network, thus providing a datalink network established by transmission of solely messages (M) compliant with said standard communication protocol.

Claims

1. An aircraft communication system for establishing a datalink network between participating aircrafts, each participating aircraft having an ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder adapted to send and receive ADS-B messages over an ADS-B standard communication protocol, wherein said ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponders establish said datalink network via an ADS-B standard communication protocol by transmitting event driven ADS-B messages having a predefined structure identifying said ADS-B messages as Type 23 ADS-B test messages and including message data, thereby providing a datalink network established by transmission of solely ADS-B messages compliant with said ADS-B standard communication protocol.

2. An aircraft communication system according to claim 1, wherein said predefined structure of the ADS-B messages includes at least one of (i) a type identifier to identify the ADS-B message as a Type 23 ADS-B test message, (ii) a message identifier to identify the ADS-B message as a message generated by a corresponding aircraft communication system, and (iii) a field comprising message data.

3. An aircraft communication system according to claim 2, wherein said field comprising message data includes status data and position data.

4. An aircraft communication system according to claim 3, wherein said status data comprises a tactical status field, a friend status field corresponding to at least one friend designated aircraft and a foe status field corresponding to at least one foe designated aircraft;

and said position data comprises an aircraft latitude field, an aircraft longitude field and an aircraft altitude field.

5. An aircraft communication system according to claim 1, wherein each participating aircraft further comprises an open system mission computer connected to a multi-functional display and to the ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder, and wherein the open system mission computer filters out the message data, from the ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder, processes said message data and computes information for display on the multi-functional display.

6. An aircraft communication system according to claim 5, wherein each open system mission computer processes data from a global positioning system and an air data computer module and passes said data to the ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder for transmission thereof.

7. An aircraft communication system according to claim 5, wherein each participating aircraft further comprises a flight management system adapted to set a flight ID classifying the aircraft, and the flight management system is connected to the open system mission computer to broadcast said flight ID via the ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder over the datalink network.

8. An aircraft communication system according to claim 7, wherein the flight ID set by the flight management system of a respective aircraft comprises a fleet ID uniquely identifying a fleet of aircrafts, and a mission ID uniquely identifying the aircraft within a training mission.

9. A method for establishing a datalink network between participating aircrafts, each having an ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder adapted to send and receive standard communication signals, the method comprising:

establishing a datalink network between the participating aircrafts using an ADS-B standard communication protocol and transmitting ADS-B messages having a predefined structure to identify said ADS-B messages as Type 23 ADS-B test messages and including message data, thereby establishing the datalink network established by transmission of solely ADS-B messages compliant with said ADS-B standard communication protocol.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein said predefined structure of the ADS-B messages includes at least one of (i) a type identifier to identify the ADS-B message as a Type 23 ADS-B test message, (ii) a message identifier to identify the ADS-B message as an ADS-B message generated by a corresponding aircraft communication system, and (iii) a field comprising message data.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein said message data field of the ADS-B message comprises includes status data and position data.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein said status data comprises a tactical status subfield, a friend status subfield corresponding to at least one friend designated aircraft, and a foe status subfield corresponding to at least one foe designated aircraft;

and said position data comprises an aircraft latitude field, an aircraft longitude field and an aircraft altitude field.

13. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

providing each participating aircraft with a flight-management system adapted to set a flight ID classifying the respective aircraft, and

broadcasting said flight ID via the ADS-B Mode-S datalink transponder over the datalink network.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein said flight ID comprises a fleet ID uniquely identifying a fleet of aircrafts, and a mission ID uniquely identifying the aircraft within a training mission.