Airplane-mounted external fire detection system

• US 9,976,907 B1
• Filed: 07/05/2017
• Issued: 05/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Wright, Robert Steven, Winters, Van Jerold
• Primary Examiner(s): Trieu, Van
• Application Number:
  US15/641,975
• Time in Patent Office: 321 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/009 Fire detection or protection; Erosion protection, e.g. from airborne particles
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 33/00 Arrangements in aircraft of power plant parts or auxiliaries not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 2005/0077 Imaging
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0264 Electrical interface; User interface
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/027 Control of working procedures of a spectrometer; Failure detection; Bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0289 Field-of-view determination; Aiming or pointing of a spectrometer; Adjusting alignment; Encoding angular position; Size of measurement area; Position tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/2803 using photoelectric array detector
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0018 Flames, plasma or welding
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/0088 in turbines
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 5/602 using selective, monochromatic or bandpass filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/12 Actuation by presence of radiation or particles, e.g. of infrared radiation or of ions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 17/125 by using a video camera to detect fire or smoke

Abstract

An aircraft-mounted external fire detection system includes optical circuitry and processing circuitry. The optical circuitry is mounted on an aircraft aft of an engine nacelle of the aircraft, and is configured to optically monitor an exterior of the engine nacelle for a hydrocarbon fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum. The processing circuitry is communicatively coupled to the optical circuitry and is configured to use the optical circuitry to determine that the fire has been continuously present for more than a threshold duration, and in response, transmit a warning to an operator terminal of the aircraft.

Claims

1. An aircraft-mounted external fire detection system comprising:

optical circuitry mounted on an aircraft aft of an engine nacelle of the aircraft, the optical circuitry being configured to optically monitor an exterior of the engine nacelle for a hydrocarbon fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum;

processing circuitry communicatively coupled to the optical circuitry and configured to use the optical circuitry to determine that the fire has been continuously present for more than a threshold duration, and in response, transmit a warning to an operator terminal of the aircraft.

2. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 1, wherein to optically monitor the exterior of the engine nacelle, the optical circuitry has a field of view comprising a perimeter substantially defined by a maximum expected deflection of the engine nacelle relative to the optical circuitry under maneuvering load of the aircraft such that the exterior of the engine nacelle remains within the field of view during the maneuvering load.

3. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 1, wherein to transmit the warning to the operator terminal, the processing circuitry is configured to control the operator terminal to display video of the engine nacelle.

4. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 3, wherein to control the operator terminal to display video of the engine nacelle, the processing circuitry is configured to trigger the operator terminal to display video captured by a ground maneuvering camera system mounted on the aircraft and to which the operator terminal is communicatively connected.

5. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to control the operator terminal to display video of the engine nacelle responsive to determining that at least a threshold number of displays are operative at the operator terminal.

6. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 1, wherein to transmit the warning to the operator terminal, the processing circuitry is configured to control the operator terminal to display a notification that is distinct from a further notification produced for a different fire detection system that monitors for fire inside of the engine nacelle.

7. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive a warning suppression signal from the operator terminal, and in response, refrain from sending a further warning to the operator terminal until the processing circuitry determines that the fire is no longer present and subsequently determines that another fire has been continuously present for more than the threshold duration.

8. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 1:

further comprising additional optical circuitry mounted on the aircraft aft of the engine nacelle, the additional optical circuitry being configured to optically monitor the exterior of the engine nacelle for the fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum;

wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to refrain from transmitting the warning to the operator terminal until the processing circuitry also determines that the fire has been continuously present for more than the threshold duration using the additional optical circuitry.

9. The aircraft-mounted external fire detection system of claim 1, wherein the optical circuitry is mounted on a vertical or horizontal stabilizer of the aircraft.

10. A method, implemented in an aircraft-mounted external fire detection system, the method comprising:

optically monitoring an exterior of an engine nacelle of an aircraft for a hydrocarbon fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum using optical circuitry mounted on the aircraft aft of the engine nacelle;

using the optical circuitry to determine that the fire has been continuously present for more than a threshold duration, and in response, transmitting a warning to an operator terminal of the aircraft.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the optical circuitry has a field of view comprising a perimeter substantially defined by a maximum expected deflection of the engine nacelle relative to the optical circuitry under maneuvering load of the aircraft such that the exterior of the engine nacelle remains within the field of view during the maneuvering load.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the warning to the operator terminal comprises controlling the operator terminal to display video of the engine nacelle.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein controlling the operator terminal to display video of the engine nacelle comprises triggering the operator terminal to display video captured from a ground maneuvering camera system mounted on the aircraft and to which the operator terminal is communicatively connected.

14. The method of claim 12, controlling the operator terminal to display video of the engine nacelle is responsive to determining that at least a threshold number of displays are operative at the operator terminal.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting the warning to the operator terminal comprises controlling the operator terminal to display a notification that is distinct from a further notification produced for a different fire detection system that monitors for fire inside of the engine nacelle.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a warning suppression signal from the operator terminal, and in response, refraining from sending a further warning to the operator terminal until determining that the fire is no longer present and subsequently determining that another fire has been continuously present for more than the threshold duration.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

optically monitoring the exterior of the engine nacelle for the fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum using additional optical circuitry mounted on the aircraft aft of the engine nacelle;

refraining from transmitting the warning to the operator terminal until it is also determined that the fire has been continuously present for more than the threshold duration using the additional optical circuitry.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the optical circuitry is mounted on a vertical or horizontal stabilizer of the aircraft.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program product for controlling a programmable aircraft-mounted external fire detection system, the computer program product comprising software instructions that, when executed on processing circuitry of the programmable aircraft-mounted external fire detection system, cause the processing circuitry to:

use optical circuitry, mounted on an aircraft aft of an engine nacelle of the aircraft and configured to optically monitor an exterior of the engine nacelle for a hydrocarbon fire by detecting radiation outside of the visible light spectrum, to determine that the fire has been continuously present for more than a threshold duration; and

transmit a warning to an operator terminal of the aircraft in response to the determination.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the software instructions cause the processing circuitry to transmit the warning to the operator terminal by controlling the operator terminal to display a notification that is distinct from a further notification produced for a different fire detection system that monitors for fire inside of the engine nacelle, the notification comprising video captured by a ground maneuvering camera system mounted on the aircraft to which the operator terminal is communicatively connected.