Wireless frequency-agile spread spectrum ground link-based aircraft data communication system having adaptive power control
DC CAFCFirst Claim
1. A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:
- a ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising;
a) an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of the aircraft, andb) a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal; and
an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data; and
an adaptive power control unit that varies an emitted power level of the wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport.
0 Assignments
Litigations
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A flight information communication system has a plurality of RF direct sequence spread spectrum ground data links that link respective aircraft-resident subsystems, in each of which a copy of its flight performance data is stored, with airport-located subsystems. The airport-located subsystems are coupled by way communication paths, such as land line telephone links, to a remote flight operations control center. At the flight operations control center, flight performance data downlinked from plural aircraft parked at different airports is analyzed. In addition, the flight control center may be employed to direct the uploading of in-flight data files, such as audio, video and navigation files from the airport-located subsystems to the aircraft.
90 Citations
58 Claims
-
1. A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:
-
a ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising; a) an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of the aircraft, and b) a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal; and an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data; and an adaptive power control unit that varies an emitted power level of the wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A system for exchanging information to and from an aircraft comprising:
-
a ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance in accordance with signals produced by said flight parameter transducers during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising; a) an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of the aircraft, and b) a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during the flight over a first wideband spread spectrum communication signal, and a receiver for receiving uploaded data over a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal; and an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the spread spectrum signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data, and a transmitter that transmits data for uploading to the aircraft over a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal; and an adaptive power control unit that varies an emitted power level of the wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. A method of providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising the steps of:
-
collecting data within a ground data link unit on the flight performance of the aircraft during flight of the aircraft; accumulating and storing within an archival memory of the ground data link unit the flight performance data during flight of the aircraft; after the aircraft lands at an airport at completion of the flight, downloading the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored during the flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal to an airport based spread spectrum transceiver; demodulating within the transceiver the received spread spectrum signal to obtain the flight performance data; and varying an emitted power level of the wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
-
-
40. A method of exchanging data to and from an aircraft comprising the steps of:
-
collecting data within a ground data link unit on the flight performance of the aircraft during flight of the aircraft; accumulating and storing within an archival memory of the ground data link unit the flight performance data during flight of the aircraft; after the aircraft lands at an airport at completion of the flight, downloading the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored during the flight over a first wideband spread spectrum communication signal to an airport based spread spectrum transceiver; demodulating the received spread spectrum signal to obtain the flight performance data; storing the demodulated flight performance data within an airport based archival data store; storing data to be uploaded to the aircraft within an airport based archival data store; retrieving the data to be uploaded; transmitting the data from an airport based spread spectrum transceiver to the aircraft along a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal to the spread spectrum transceiver of the ground data link unit located within the aircraft; and varying an emitted power level of the first wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport. - View Dependent Claims (41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
-
-
52. A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:
-
an aircraft comprising a plurality of flight parameter transducers and flight data acquisition equipment distributed throughout the airport; a ground data link unit operatively coupled to the plurality of flight parameter transducers and flight data acquisition equipment for obtaining flight performance data representative of ai aircraft flight performance, said ground data link unit further comprising; an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during said flight of said aircraft, and a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during said flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal; an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data; and an adaptive power control unit that varies an emitted power level of the wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport. - View Dependent Claims (53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
-
Specification