Wireless, frequency-agile spread spectrum ground like-based aircraft data communication system with remote flight operations control center

• US 6,108,523 A
• Filed: 02/17/1999
• Issued: 08/22/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Harris Corporation (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Wright, Thomas H., Ziarno, James J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Crosland, Donnie L.
• Application Number:
  US09/251,667
• Time in Patent Office: 552 Days
• Field of Search: 455/66, 455/67.1, 455/54.1, 455/33.1, 455/431, 340/945, 340/963, 340/825.72, 340/825.69, 340/961, 340/971, 701/14, 701/29, 701/35, 375/200, 375/219, 375/220
• US Class Current: 455/66.1
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0055 with safety arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0026 located on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/065 Navigation or guidance aids, e.g. for taxiing or rolling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service

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.

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 the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal that comprises a signal in the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz;

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;

an airport based archival data store coupled to said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver that receives and stores the demodulated flight performance data;

an airport based processor coupled to said archival data store for retrieving flight data performance from the airport based archival data store;

a remote flight operations control center; and

an airport based communications network operatively connecting said remote flight operations control center and airport based processor to allow the remote flight operations control center to receive and analyze the flight performance data.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein said remote flight operations control center further comprises a system controller and plurality of ground data link workstations operatively connected to said system controller to allow flight performance analysts to evaluate aircraft flight performance data.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum signal.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a signal within the S band.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver further comprises a wireless router that couples said wideband spread spectrum transceiver to said airport based archival data store.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein said archival data store of said ground data link unit further comprises means for compressing said flight performance data during the flight of the aircraft.

7. A system according to claim 1, and further comprising a flight data recording system positioned on board the aircraft, wherein said archival data store of said ground data link unit is operatively coupled to said flight data recording system.

8. 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 said flight of said 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 aircraft 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 that comprises a signal in the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz;

a plurality of airport based wideband spread spectrum transceivers, each comprising a receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communications signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data;

an airport based local area network connected to said plurality of airport based spread spectrum transceivers;

at least one airport base station operatively connected to said plurality of airport based wideband spread spectrum transceivers through said airport based local area network, said base station further comprising,

an archival data store that receives and stores said flight performance data; and

a processor coupled to said archival data store for retrieving flight data performance from the archival data store;

a remote flight operations control center; and

an airport based communications network operatively connecting said remote flight operations control center and base station for requesting downloading of said flight performance data from said processor and archival data storage for transmission along said airport based communications network to said remote flight operations control center.

9. A system according to claim 8, wherein said airport based communications network connects said remote flight operations control center to other airport based base stations located at other airports to receive and analyze flight performance data from those airports.

10. A system according to claim 8, wherein said flight operations control center further comprises a system controller and plurality of ground data link workstations operatively connected to said system controller to allow flight performance analysts to evaluate aircraft flight performance data.

11. A system according to claim 8, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum signal.

12. A system according to claim 8, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a signal within the S band.

13. A system according to claim 8, wherein said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver further comprises a wireless router that couples said wideband spread spectrum transceiver to said airport based base station.

14. A system according to claim 8, wherein said archival data store of said ground data link unit further comprises means for compressing said flight performance data during the flight of the aircraft.

15. A system according to claim 8, wherein said transceivers operate in half duplex mode.

16. 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 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 said flight of said 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 said flight, over a first wideband spread spectrum communication signal that comprises a signal in the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz, and a receiver for receiving uploaded data over a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal that comprises a signal in the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz;

an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the first wideband spread spectrum communication 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, said unloaded data including video, audio and flight information;

an airport based archival data store coupled to said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver that receives and stores said flight performance data and data to be uploaded to said aircraft;

an airport based processor coupled to said archival data store for retrieving flight performance data from the airport based archival data store; and

a remote flight operations control center operatively coupled to said airport based processor to receive and analyze the flight performance data, said remote flight operations control center also storing video, audio and flight information for unloading.

17. A system according to claim 16, and further comprising a communications network interconnecting said airport based processor and said remote flight operations control center.

18. A system according to claim 17, wherein said communications network further comprises a local public switched telephone network.

19. A system according to claim 16, wherein said flight operations control center further comprises a system controller and plurality of ground data link workstations operatively connected to said system controller to allow flight performance analysts to evaluate aircraft flight performance data.

20. A system according to claim 16, wherein said video, audio and flight information to be uploaded to said aircraft further comprises digitized in-flight passenger service and entertainment video and audio files.

21. A system according to claim 16, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum signal.

22. A system according to claim 16, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a signal within the S band.

23. A system according to claim 16, wherein said uploaded data comprises flight navigation information, and digitized in-flight passenger service and entertainment video and files.

24. A system according to claim 16, wherein said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver further comprises a wireless router that couples said wideband spread spectrum transceiver to said airport based archival data store.

25. A system according to claim 16, wherein said airchival data store of said ground data link unit further comprises means for compressing said flight performance data during the flight of the aircraft.

26. A system according to claim 16, wherein said transceivers operate in half duplex mode.

27. 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 data store 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 that comprises a signal in the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz to an airport based spread spectrum receiver;

demodulating within the receiver the received spread spectrum signal to obtain the flight performance data;

storing the demodulated flight performance data within an airport based archival data store; and

retrieving the flight performance data via an airport based processor; and

routing the flight performance data from the airport based processor and archival data store via a first around based wideband spread spectrum transceiver via a first wideband spread spectrum communication signal to a ground based wideband spread spectrum transceiver functioning as a repeater to relay the flight performance data to a remote flight operations control center via a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal.

28. A method according to claim 27, and further comprising the step of evaluating the flight performance data at a plurality of ground data link workstations within the remote flight operations center.

29. A method according to claim 27, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum signal.

30. A method according to claim 27, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a signal within the S band.

31. A method according to claim 27, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a signal within the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 Ghz.

32. A method according to claim 27, and further comprising the step of compressing the flight perfomance data within the archival memory storage during flight of the aircraft.

33. 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 data store 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 that comprises a signal within the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz to an airport based spread spectrum transceiver;

demodulating the received spread spectrum signal within the airport based spread to obtain the flight performance data;

storing the demodulated flight performance data within an airport based archival data store;

retrieving data to be uploaded from a remote flight operations control center and forwarding the data to be uploaded to the airport based archival data storage;

retrieving the data to be uploaded from the airport based archival data storage; and

transmitting the data from an airport based spread spectrum transceiver to the aircraft along a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal that comprises a signal within the range of about 2.4 to about 2.5 GHz to the ground data link unit within the aircraft.

34. A method according to claim 33, and further comprising the step of evaluating the flight performance data at a plurality of ground data link workstations within the remote flight operations center.

35. A method according to claim 33, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum signal.

36. A method according to claim 33, wherein the wideband spread spectrum communication signal comprises a signal within the S band.

37. A method according to claim 33, and further comprising the step of uploading to the aircraft from the airport based spread spectrum transceiver video, audio and flight information that has been stored within the airport based archival data store.

38. A method according to claim 37, wherein the video, audio and flight information to be uploaded further comprises digitized in-flight passenger service and entertainment video and audio files.