FAIL SAFE AIRCRAFT MONITORING AND TRACKING
First Claim
1. A method for monitoring and tracking an aircraft under exceptional conditions, comprising:
- powering a flight data recorder from an essential electrical bus which cannot be shut down under flight conditions without disabling other equipment that is essential for safe flight operations;
receiving at the flight data recorder a data stream from a flight data acquisition unit specifying values for a plurality of flight data parameters while an aircraft is in flight;
storing one or more of the values from the data stream in a memory unit;
determining an occurrence during flight of an exception condition based on an evaluation of at least one exception parameter;
responsive to determining the occurrence of the exception condition, wirelessly communicating selected aircraft data to a remote location external of the aircraft using a wireless transmitter; and
preventing actions intended to disable or prevent said wirelessly communicating by (a) exclusively controlling operations of the wireless transmitter with the flight data recorder and (b) only allowing the wireless transmitter to be powered down when the flight data recorder is powered down.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Flight data recorder receives from an aircraft a data stream specifying values for flight data parameters while an aircraft is in flight. The flight data recorder stores the values in a crash survivable non-volatile memory unit of the flight data recorder. The flight data recorder determines an occurrence during flight of an exception condition based on an evaluation of at least one exception parameter. Responsive to determining the occurrence of the exception condition, the flight data recorder wirelessly communicates selected aircraft data to a remote location external of the aircraft using a wireless transmitter under the exclusive control of the flight data recorder.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A method for monitoring and tracking an aircraft under exceptional conditions, comprising:
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powering a flight data recorder from an essential electrical bus which cannot be shut down under flight conditions without disabling other equipment that is essential for safe flight operations; receiving at the flight data recorder a data stream from a flight data acquisition unit specifying values for a plurality of flight data parameters while an aircraft is in flight; storing one or more of the values from the data stream in a memory unit; determining an occurrence during flight of an exception condition based on an evaluation of at least one exception parameter; responsive to determining the occurrence of the exception condition, wirelessly communicating selected aircraft data to a remote location external of the aircraft using a wireless transmitter; and preventing actions intended to disable or prevent said wirelessly communicating by (a) exclusively controlling operations of the wireless transmitter with the flight data recorder and (b) only allowing the wireless transmitter to be powered down when the flight data recorder is powered down. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A flight data recorder system which facilitates aircraft monitoring and tracking under exceptional conditions, comprising:
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a system interface which is arranged to receive a data stream from an aircraft specifying a plurality of flight data parameters while the aircraft is in flight; a crash survivable non-volatile memory unit in which one or more of the plurality of flight data parameters are stored after being received at the system interface; a wireless transmitter that is under the exclusive control of the flight data recorder system, which can be powered down only when the flight data recorder system is powered down, and configured to communicate with a remote receiving device external of the aircraft during flight; and a processing system which determines an occurrence of an exception condition based on an evaluation of at least one exception parameter, and in response to determining the occurrence of the exception condition causes the wireless transmitter to wirelessly communicate selected aircraft data to the remote receiving device. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An aircraft with a fail-safe tracking system, comprising
a flight data acquisition unit; -
a flight data recorder; and an essential electrical bus configured to supply power to the flight data recorder, and which can only be shut down under flight conditions when other equipment that is essential for safe flight operations is also disabled, wherein the flight data recorder includes a system interface which is arranged to receive a data stream from the flight data acquisition unit specifying a plurality of flight data parameters while the aircraft is in flight, a crash survivable non-volatile memory unit in which one or more of the plurality of flight data parameters are stored after being received at the system interface, a wireless transmitter that is under the exclusive control of the flight data recorder which can be powered down only when the flight data recorder is powered down, and configured to communicate with a remote receiving device external of the aircraft during flight, and a processing system which determines an occurrence of an exception condition based on an evaluation of at least one exception parameter, and in response to determining the occurrence of the exception condition causes the wireless transmitter to wirelessly communicate selected aircraft data to the remote receiving device.
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23. An enhanced monitoring and reporting (EMR) system which facilitates aircraft monitoring and tracking under exceptional conditions, comprising:
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a system interface which is arranged to receive a data stream from a flight data acquisition unit of an aircraft specifying a plurality of flight data parameters while the aircraft is in flight; a memory unit in which one or more of the plurality of flight data parameters are stored after being received at the system interface; a wireless transmitter that is under the exclusive control of the EMR system, which can be powered down only when a flight data recorder is powered down, and configured to communicate with a remote receiving device external of the aircraft during flight; and a processing system which determines an occurrence of an exception condition based on an evaluation of at least one exception parameter, and in response to determining the occurrence of the exception condition causes the wireless transmitter to wirelessly communicate selected aircraft data to the remote receiving device. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27)
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Specification