System and method of providing OOOI times of an aircraft
First Claim
1. A system of providing a retrievable record of the "Out," "Off," "On," and "In" (OOOI) times of an aircraft comprising:
- a plurality of sensors located throughout the aircraft for sensing routine aircraft conditions and generating parametric data such as received by a flight data recorder;
a multiplexer connected to the plurality of sensors for receiving the parametric data from the plurality of sensors and multiplexing the parametric data;
a central processing unit positioned within the aircraft and operatively connected to the multiplexer for receiving and demultiplexing a sample of the multiplexed stream of parametric data and demultiplexing the data and calculating the OOOI times of the aircraft;
a data store positioned within the aircraft and connected to the central processing unit and operative to accumulate and store the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft;
a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to the data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative to download the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal;
an airport based wideband spread spectrum receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for determining the Out, Off, On, and In (OOOI) times for commercial air transport aircraft, based on parametric data routinely sampled and presented in a multiplexed data stream to the Flight Data Recorder. In a preferred embodiment, this method is used in conjunction with a system capable of recording, analyzing, and automatically forwarding recorded flight data. "Out" means out of the gate, "Off" means off the ground, "On" means on the ground, and "In" means in at the gate. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), brake pressure, magnetic heading, ground speed, flight number and flight leg, engine start/stop, and air/ground switch are currently available parameters that are sampled and presented to the Flight Data Recorder in a multiplexed data stream. These parameters are used by this method in various combinations to determine the OOOI times for a given flight. "Out" and "Off" times can be determined through analysis of these parameters and downloaded immediately after takeoff over a RF Link to a ground station. "On" time can likewise be determined through analysis of these parameters and downloaded immediately after landing over a RF Link to a ground station. "In" time can be determined from analysis of these parameters and downloaded while the aircraft is parked at the gate. These parameters can also be recorded and forwarded at the end of the flight to an analysis station where the OOOI times are subsequently computed on a different computing platform.
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Citations
62 Claims
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1. A system of providing a retrievable record of the "Out," "Off," "On," and "In" (OOOI) times of an aircraft comprising:
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a plurality of sensors located throughout the aircraft for sensing routine aircraft conditions and generating parametric data such as received by a flight data recorder; a multiplexer connected to the plurality of sensors for receiving the parametric data from the plurality of sensors and multiplexing the parametric data; a central processing unit positioned within the aircraft and operatively connected to the multiplexer for receiving and demultiplexing a sample of the multiplexed stream of parametric data and demultiplexing the data and calculating the OOOI times of the aircraft; a data store positioned within the aircraft and connected to the central processing unit and operative to accumulate and store the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft; a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to the data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative to download the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal; an airport based wideband spread spectrum receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system of providing a retrievable record of the "Out," "Off," "On," and "In" (OOOI) times of an aircraft comprising:
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a plurality of sensors located throughout the aircraft for sensing routine aircraft conditions and generating parametric data such as received by a flight data recorder; a multiplexer connected to the plurality of sensors for receiving the parametric data from the plurality of sensors and multiplexing the data; a central processing unit positioned within the aircraft and operatively connected to the multiplexer for receiving a sample of the multiplexed stream of parametric data and demultiplexing the data and calculating the OOOI times of the aircraft; a data store positioned within the aircraft and connected to the central processing unit for storing data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft; a transmitter coupled to the data store that is operative to download data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft over a radio frequency communication signal; an airport based receiver that receives the radio frequency communication signal from the aircraft; and a processor operatively connected to the airport based receiver for receiving the data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft and further processing the data. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of providing a retrievable record of the "Out," "Off," "On," and "In" (OOOI) times an aircraft comprising the steps of:
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acquiring parametric data relating to the OOOI times of an aircraft during taxi, takeoff, flight and landing of the aircraft; accumulating and storing within a data store of a ground data link unit the data relating to the OOOI times during taxi, takeoff, flight and landing of the aircraft; after the aircraft lands at an airport at completion of the flight, downloading the data relating to the OOOI times that has been accumulated and stored within the data store during the flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal to an airport based spread spectrum transceiver; demodulating the received spread spectrum signal to obtain the data relating to the OOOI times; storing the demodulated data relating to the OOOI times within an airport based archival data store; and retrieving the data relating to the OOOI times via an airport based processor for further processing. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method of providing "Out," "Off," "On," and "In" (OOOI) times of an aircraft comprising the steps of:
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sampling parametric data that is routinely sampled and presented as a multiplexed stream of data to a flight data recorder of an aircraft; demultiplexing the data within a central processing unit positioned within the aircraft; calculating within the central processing unit the OOOI times of the aircraft from the multiplexed data stream; storing data relating to the calculated OOOI times of the aircraft within a data store positioned within the aircraft; and downloading the data relating to the calculated OOOI times over a radio frequency communication signal to an airport based receiver. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A method of providing "Out," "Off," "On," and "In" (OOOI) times of an aircraft comprising the steps of:
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sensing aircraft parametric data from at least one aircraft sensor that is operatively connected to aircraft components that sense indications that an aircraft is out from the gate terminal and then off the ground in takeoff; receiving the parametric data within a central processing unit positioned within the aircraft during flight of the aircraft; calculating the "out" and "off" times from the received multiplexed data; storing the calculated "out" and "off" times within a nonvolatile memory positioned on the aircraft; downloading the calculated "out" and "off" times over a radio frequency communication signal to an airport based receiver for further processing after takeoff from the runway. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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Specification