METHOD FOR TRANSMITTING AIRCRAFT FLIGHT DATA

• US 20130244588A1
• Filed: 08/15/2012
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GE Aviation Systems LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Original Assignee: GE Aviation Systems LLC (GE Aerospace)
• Inventors: Pereira, Frazer Leslie
• Granted Patent: US 9,313,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/73
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0065 Black boxes, devices automatically broadcasting distress signals
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 2045/0085 Devices for aircraft health monitoring, e.g. monitoring flutter or vibration
• CPC Class Codes: B64D 45/00 Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for camouflage F41H3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18506 Communications with or from aircraft, i.e. aeronautical mobile service
• 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

Abstract

A method of transmitting aircraft flight data for an aircraft from the aircraft to a destination server via a wireless communication link with the method including determining an operational status of the aircraft, determining flight data to be transmitted, and transmitting the determined flight data to be transmitted to the destination server.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting aircraft flight data for an aircraft to a destination server via a wireless communication link, the method comprising:

determining an operational status of the aircraft;

determining a portion of the flight data to be transmitted based upon the determined operational status of the aircraft; and

transmitting the determined portion of the flight data over the wireless communication link to the destination server.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational status of the aircraft includes at least one of a normal mode, an emergency mode, and a critical mode.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the normal mode, emergency mode, and critical mode differ in content of the flight data sent to the destination server.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the operational status of the aircraft comprises at least a normal mode, an emergency mode, a critical mode, and a user-defined mode.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the flight data of the aircraft includes at least one of navigation data, fuel data, audio data, multimedia data, electrical and power systems data, and propulsion data.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the determined portion of the flight data to be transmitted includes audio data when it is determined that the aircraft is in one of the emergency mode and the critical mode.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the determined portion of the flight data to be transmitted further includes navigation data when it is determined that the aircraft is in the critical mode.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining the portion of the flight data to be transmitted is further based upon a priority level associated with the flight data.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the determined portion of the flight data to be transmitted further includes at least one of electrical and power systems data and propulsion data when it is determined that the aircraft is in the emergency mode.

10. The method of claim 5 wherein the determined portion of the flight data to be transmitted includes fuel data when it is determined that the aircraft is in the normal mode.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the operational status of the aircraft may be user-defined.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the operational status comprises monitoring at least one parameter of the aircraft indicative of the operational status.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one parameter may include a threshold value and an intensity value.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the operational status of the aircraft is repeatedly determined.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising grouping the flight data according to priority levels.

16. The method of claim 15, transmitting the flight data according to the priority level of the flight data, with the highest priority data being transmitted first.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the transmitting of the determined portion of the flight data is affected by the priority level associated with the flight data and a bandwidth of the communication link.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the priority level associated with the flight data changes with the operational status of the aircraft and the grouping of the flight data according to priority levels includes determining the priority levels of the flight data.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the destination server includes a designated ground station.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the determined portion of the flight data.