Systems and methods for communicating aircraft data

• US 8,005,581 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rtx Corporation
• Original Assignee: United Technologies Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Beacham, William H. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beaulieu; Yonel
• Application Number:
  US11/863,438
• Publication Number:
  US 20100042289A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,425 Days
• Field of Search: 701/1, 701/3, 701/14, 701 35- 36, 702/127, 702/142, 702/144, 340/963, 340/945
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/085 using electronic data carriers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC

Abstract

Systems and methods for communicating aircraft data are provided. In this regard, a representative system includes a data reduction system operative to: receive aircraft data; store a first set of the aircraft data; analyze a next set of the aircraft data; and store the next set of the aircraft data if the next set of aircraft data differs from the first set of the aircraft data.

Claims

1. A method for communicating aircraft data comprising:

receiving aircraft data, the data comprising a series of time entries and corresponding performance information;

storing a first of the time entries and corresponding performance information;

analyzing a next of the time entries and corresponding performance information;

storing the performance information corresponding to the next time entry if the performance information corresponding to the next time entry differs from the performance information corresponding to the first of the time entries;

not storing the performance information corresponding to the next time entry if the performance information corresponding to the next time entry does not differ from the performance information corresponding to the first of the time entries; and

transmitting the stored performance information portion of the aircraft data with a transmitter.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising also not storing the next time entry if the performance information corresponding to the next time entry does not differ from the performance information corresponding to the first of the time entries.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing data compression on the stored performance information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, in receiving the aircraft data, the aircraft data is provided by an Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS).

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the stored performance information is wirelessly transmitted by the transmitter.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising reconstructing the aircraft data using the performance information communicated via the transmitter.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the aircraft data is performed onboard the aircraft.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the performance information corresponding to the next time entry regardless of whether or not the performance information corresponding to the next time entry differs from the performance information corresponding to the first of the time entries if the next time entry is the last time entry.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing trend analysis on the performance information.

10. A system for communicating aircraft data comprising:

a data reduction system operative to;

receive aircraft data;

store a first set of the aircraft data;

analyze a next set of the aircraft data; and

store the next set of the aircraft data if the next set of aircraft data differs from the first set of the aircraft data; and

a transmitter operative to transmit the stored aircraft data.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the aircraft data is provided by an Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS).

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the system further comprises a flight data analysis unit (FDAU) operative to perform ACMS functionality; and

the data reduction system is operative to receive the aircraft data from the FDAU.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the data reduction system is resident in a line replaceable unit (LRU).

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the transmitter is operative to wirelessly transmit the stored aircraft data.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the transmitter is incorporated into the LRU.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the data reduction system is operative to receive the aircraft data in an ARINC 717 quick access recorder (QAR) data format.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising a data reconstruction system operative to reconstruct the aircraft data from performance information.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the data reconstruction system is operative to decompress the performance information responsive to determining that the performance information is compressed.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the data reduction system is operative to receive the aircraft data via a data bus resident on the aircraft.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the data reduction system is operative to receive the aircraft data via an ARINC 429 data bus.