Data retrieval system in an aircraft with data stored during a flight and wirelessly transmitted to a ground system after landing using a transmission element in an external panel of an avionic bay

• US 9,884,689 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2014
• Issued: 02/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BAE Systems Plc
• Original Assignee: BAE Systems Plc
• Inventors: Pescod, Christopher Ralph, Hyde, Lydia Ann, Nawaz, Shahbaz, Waddington, Shaun William
• Primary Examiner(s): VO, NGUYEN THANH
• Application Number:
  US14/892,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20160114902A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,357 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0065 Black boxes, devices automatically broadcasting distress signals
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/04 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/3822 specially adapted for use in vehicles H04B1/3827 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service

Abstract

An aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system and method, comprising: a data storage device (14) located in an aircraft (2) adapted to, during a flight, store data acquired during the flight; a transmission element (50), for example a dielectric filled hole or a coaxial transmission line assembly, in an external panel (9) of the aircraft (2); and wireless apparatus (18) adapted to wirelessly transmit, after the aircraft (2) has landed, the stored data to a ground-side data retrieval system (6) via the transmission element (50).

Claims

1. An aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system, comprising:

a data storage device located in an aircraft and adapted to, during a flight, store data acquired during the flight;

a dielectric filled hole passing through an external panel of the aircraft from a first side of the external panel on an interior of the aircraft to a second side of the external panel on an exterior of the aircraft, the external panel electromagnetically sealing a bay within the interior of the aircraft when the external panel is in a closed position; and

a wireless apparatus adapted to wirelessly transmit, after the aircraft has landed, the stored data from the interior of the aircraft to a ground-side aircraft data retrieval system via the dielectric filled hole, such that the stored data is passed from the electromagnetically sealed bay only through the dielectric filled hole to the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system, with the external panel in the closed position.

2. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein at least an antenna of the wireless apparatus is in the bay of the aircraft.

3. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 2, wherein the bay is an avionics bay of the aircraft.

4. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric filled said hole in the external panel comprises a conductor surrounded by dielectric material.

5. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein dielectric filling of the dielectric filled hole is a material with a dielectric constant in the range 2.1 to 2.36.

6. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 5, wherein the dielectric filled hole is in a bolt that is in the external panel.

7. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the dielectric filled said hole comprises a coaxial transmission line assembly.

8. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 7, wherein the coaxial transmission line assembly comprises a bolt made of a conducting material.

9. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless apparatus is further adapted to wirelessly transmit, after the aircraft has landed, the stored data to the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system at a frequency in a range selected from the following ranges:

(i) 50-330 GHz, (ii) 22-24 GHz.

10. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system according to claim 1, wherein the system is for use on a military aircraft and the data storage device is located in a first location on the military aircraft.

11. A system including:

a data storage device located in an aircraft and adapted to, during a flight, store data acquired during the flight;

a dielectric filled hole passing through an external panel of the aircraft from a first side of the external panel on an interior of the aircraft to a second side of the external panel on an exterior of the aircraft, the external panel electromagnetically sealing a bay within the interior of the aircraft when the external panel is in a closed position; and

a first wireless apparatus adapted to wirelessly transmit, after the aircraft has landed, the stored data from the interior of the aircraft to a ground-side aircraft data retrieval system via the dielectric filled hole, such that the stored data is passed from the electromagnetically sealed bay only through the dielectric filled hole to the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system, with the external panel in the closed position;

wherein the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system includes a second wireless apparatus adapted to wirelessly receive the data acquired and stored by the aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval system during the flight and transmitted via the dielectric-filled hole in the external panel after the landing of the aircraft and with the external panel in the closed position.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system is located in a hand-held terminal.

13. The system according to claim 11, further comprising an antenna probe head arrangement adapted to capture the wireless transmission from the dielectric-filled hole.

14. An aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval method, comprising:

during a flight by an aircraft, storing data acquired during the flight in a storage device located in the aircraft; and

after the aircraft has landed, wirelessly transmitting the stored data to a ground-side aircraft data retrieval system via a dielectric filled hole through an external panel of the aircraft that is accessible from an exterior of the aircraft, such that the stored data is passed only through the dielectric filled hole to the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system when aligned with the dielectric filled hole.

15. A ground-side aircraft data retrieval method comprising the aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval method according to claim 14, further comprising wirelessly receiving, by the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system, the wirelessly transmitted stored data.

16. A ground-side aircraft data retrieval method according to claim 15, wherein the wirelessly receiving of the wirelessly transmitted stored data is carried out at a frequency in a range selected from the following ranges:

(i) 50-330 GHz, (ii) 22-24 GHz.

17. The aircraft-side aircraft data retrieval method according to claim 14, wherein the wirelessly transmitting of the stored data to the ground-side aircraft data retrieval system is carried out at a frequency in a range selected from the following ranges:

(i) 50-330 GHz, (ii) 22-24 GHz.