Flight Data Tracker

• US 20150203212A1
• Filed: 01/17/2014
• Published: 07/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Junaid Ahmed Zubairi
• Original Assignee: Junaid Ahmed Zubairi
• Inventors: Zubairi, Junaid Ahmed
• Granted Patent: US 9,718,557 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0065 Black boxes, devices automatically broadcasting distress signals
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0004 Transmission of traffic-related information to or from an aircraft airborne radio transmission systems in general H04B7/185; airborne wireless networks H04W84/06
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0082 for monitoring traffic from a ground station radar or analogous systems specially adapted for traffic control G01S13/91

Abstract

When flights meet disaster in the mid-air, the cause of the mishap is unknown immediately. Teams are dispatched in difficult conditions to retrieve the flight data recorder (FDR) also known as black box. Until the black box is found, the exact cause of the crash cannot be determined. Sometimes it may take years to find the black box. For example, Air France flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Jun. 1, 2009. The cause of the accident remained unknown mainly because the black box was missing. It was found after almost two years in May 2011. The delay in finding the flight data creates risks for future flights if the crash occurred due to a manufacturing defect in the model of the plane. The ability to reach the data without the burden and need for a physical black box has obvious benefits. This idea has been discussed in the literature but no one has put forth a functional and effective method for the implementation of this concept, for example no one has determined an appropriate software scheme that would enable a universal system that doesn'"'"'t need a black box or which can function in parallel with black box. In this project, a set of algorithms for reliable transmission of flight data in real-time to distributed ground servers is developed. The attached description presents an overall structure of the proposed scheme. We also describe the methods of communicating between at least one plane server, several data servers and at least one central server controlling various components of data transmission, and the algorithms that enable the communication of data. In addition, the proposed packet header formats, the packet type codes and fault tolerance features are described.

Claims

1. A distributed data transmission and storage system for flight data in civil aviation planes with separately identifiable plane, data and control server modules.

2. The system in claim 1 with the addition of flight routing module to identify the distributed data servers on the ground that would take part in receiving and processing flight data between the origin and destination airport.

3. An embodiment of the system in claim 1 using C language programs running on Linux machines for test and simulation purpose.

4. An optional application of 1-of-N transmission principal to system in claim 1 to save bandwidth when satellite communication is used so that out of every N samples, only one is transmitted to the ground.

5. The system in claim 1 with the addition of fault tolerance so that any communication failure between the flight and the current ground server would trigger a switch to satellite communication to the next ground server on the path of the flight.