Systems and methods for issuing a hard landing warning and providing maintenance advisories for hard landing incidents

• US 8,554,396 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2012
• Issued: 10/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Chandran, Nagarajan, Lad, Girish M
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Application Number:
  US13/342,759
• Publication Number:
  US 20130173092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 644 Days
• Field of Search: 701 3- 5, 701 7- 9, 701/16, 340/945, 340/947, 340/948, 340/951, 340/960, 340/963, 340/983, 244/81, 244/183, 731/78.T
• US Class Current: 701/16
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/008 Devices for detecting or indicating hard landing
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/04 Landing aids; Safety measures to prevent collision with earth's surface

Abstract

An aircraft is provided. The aircraft may include, but is not limited to, an accelerometer configured to measure a deceleration experienced by the aircraft and a processor coupled to the accelerometer. The processor may be configured to determine if the aircraft experienced a hard landing if the deceleration experienced by the aircraft was greater than a predetermined threshold, and generate a maintenance advisory if the aircraft experienced a hard landing.

Claims

1. A hard landing warning system for an aircraft, comprising:

at least one flight instrument collecting flight instrument data;

a hard landing indicator; and

a processor coupled to the at least one flight instrument and the hard landing indicator, the processor configured to;

determine if the aircraft is in the landing phase based upon the flight instrument data;

determine, when the aircraft is in a landing phase, a descent condition of the aircraft based upon the flight instrument data; and

issue a hard landing warning via the hard landing indicator if the descent condition indicates a potential hard landing before the aircraft has landed.

2. The hard landing system of claim 1, wherein the flight instrument data includes a descent rate.

3. The hard landing system of claim 1, wherein when the descent condition is also based upon a configuration of the aircraft.

4. The hard landing system of claim 1, wherein when the descent condition is also based upon a weight of the aircraft.

5. The hard landing system of claim 1, wherein when the descent condition is also based upon a rotor condition of a rotor of the aircraft.

6. The hard landing system of claim 1, further comprising an accelerometer coupled to the processor, the accelerometer configured to measure a deceleration experienced by the aircraft, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine if the aircraft experienced a hard landing if the deceleration experienced by the aircraft was greater than a predetermined threshold; and

generate a maintenance advisory if the aircraft experienced a hard landing.

7. The hard landing system of claim 6, further comprising a communications system coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the generated maintenance advisory to maintenance personnel via the communications system.

8. The hard landing system of claim 7, wherein the aircraft further comprises a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store a threshold for each of a plurality of aircraft components on the aircraft,

wherein the processor is further configured to:

compare the deceleration experienced by the aircraft with the threshold for each of the plurality of aircraft components on the aircraft; and

generate the maintenance advisory when the deceleration experienced by the aircraft is greater than the threshold of at least one of the plurality of aircraft components.

9. A method executed by a processor, the method comprising:

determining if an aircraft is in a landing phase;

determining, when the aircraft is in the landing phase, a descent condition for the aircraft; and

issuing a hard landing warning when the descent condition indicates a possibility of a hard landing before the aircraft has landed.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining if the aircraft experienced a hard landing if a deceleration experienced by the aircraft exceeds a predetermined threshold;

determining, if the aircraft experienced a hard landing, if one or more aircraft components could have been damaged during the hard landing; and

issuing a maintenance advisory indicating which of the one or more aircraft components could have been damaged during the hard landing.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining if one or more aircraft components could have been damaged during the hard landing further comprises comparing the deceleration experienced by the aircraft with a threshold for each of the one or more aircraft components.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising generating a landing report based upon the hard landing.