Method and apparatus suitable for measuring the displacement or load on an aircraft component
First Claim
1. An aircraft including apparatus for measuring a current load on a component of the aircraft, the apparatus including a control unit, a controllable emitter of microwave radiation, and a detector able to detect radiation from said emitter, wherein the apparatus is arranged so that, in use when the aircraft component is subjected to a current load of the type to be measured, relative movement of the detector and the position of the radiation from the emitter in the region of the detector is caused, the detector in use generates in response to microwave radiation received from the emitter a signal that is received by the control unit, the signal being dependent on the relative positions of the detector and the radiation from the emitter in the region of the detector, and the control unit is arranged to provide an output signal dependent on the current load sustained by the aircraft component.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The load on an aircraft component, such as the load on a landing gear leg during braking, is measured with a contactless, all-weather displacement measuring system. The system includes a control unit a controllable microwave emitter of electromagnetic radiation and a microwave detector comprising a plurality of antennae. When the aircraft component is subjected to a load relative movement of the emitter and detector is caused. The detector generates in response to microwave radiation received from the focused beam of radiation emitted by the emitter a signal that is received by a signal processor of the control unit. The signal received by the control unit depends on the relative positions of the emitter and detector. The control unit is arranged to provide an output signal representative of the load sustained by the aircraft component. The system may be used to control braking in dependence on the output signal so as to maximize braking efficiency without overloading the landing gear leg.
26 Citations
21 Claims
- 1. An aircraft including apparatus for measuring a current load on a component of the aircraft, the apparatus including a control unit, a controllable emitter of microwave radiation, and a detector able to detect radiation from said emitter, wherein the apparatus is arranged so that, in use when the aircraft component is subjected to a current load of the type to be measured, relative movement of the detector and the position of the radiation from the emitter in the region of the detector is caused, the detector in use generates in response to microwave radiation received from the emitter a signal that is received by the control unit, the signal being dependent on the relative positions of the detector and the radiation from the emitter in the region of the detector, and the control unit is arranged to provide an output signal dependent on the current load sustained by the aircraft component.
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15. A method of measuring a load on an aircraft component, the method including the following steps:
- causing microwave radiation to be emitted from an emitter, measuring the radiation received by a detector from the emitter, the radiation measurement being dependent on the relative movement of the detector and the position of the radiation from the emitter in the region of the detector caused by a load on the aircraft component, and calculating an indication of the load sustained by the aircraft component from the radiation measurement together with data concerning the relationship between the radiation measurement and the load sustained by the component.
- View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
Specification