Method of debriefing multi aircraft operations

• US 5,467,274 A
• Filed: 03/16/1992
• Issued: 11/14/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rada Electronic Industries Ltd. (Leonardo S.p.A.)
• Original Assignee: Rada Electronic Industries Ltd. (Leonardo S.p.A.)
• Inventors: Vax, Hanan
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Gary
• Application Number:
  US07/851,630
• Time in Patent Office: 1,338 Days
• Field of Search: 364/424.03, 364/424.04, 364/443, 364/424.06, 364/449, 360/5, 360/8, 360/31, 73/489, 369/21
• US Class Current: 701/14
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/165 Control of aircraft

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for debriefing aircraft A/C operations. The method comprises forwarding selected flight data obtained, e.g. from a suitable GPS receiver, collected on the aircraft computer to a monitoring device, encoding from said monitoring device the digital data by an Asynchronous protocol, e.g. RS-232 protocol, onto the cassette of the AVTR and thereafter subjecting the cassette on the ground to a data reduction process, thus obtaining a display file. The GPS receiver is, for example, a commercial code receiver which may be connected to one antenna only. The data received from the GPS receiver are being forwarded to the monitoring device, encoded simultaneously with the other flight data and, by the same method, correcting on the ground in the course of the reduction process the Inertial Navigation System (INS) position drifts. Differential GPS technique may be used on the ground. Several individual display files may be syunchronized into a single display file.

Claims

1. A method to gather, process and display aircraft operations data comprising:

conducting aircraft operation with multiple aircraft and collecting selected flight data in each of said aircraft in an airborne computer in each of said aircraft;

encoding said selected flight data collected in each said computer in each of said aircraft by an encoder and recording said encoded selected flight data onto a video tape in each said aircraft;

sensing inertial navigation data by an inertial navigation system on said aircraft, determining each aircraft location therefrom, and providing inertial navigation system location data to each said airborne computer;

transferring said inertial navigation system location data to a monitoring apparatus in each said aircraft;

sensing global positioning system satellite signals and determining each aircraft global positioning system location data by time differentiating said global positioning system satellite signals;

transferring said global positioning system location data to said monitoring apparatus in each said aircraft using an asynchronous protocol;

encoding said global positioning system location data and said inertial navigation system location data in each said aircraft monitoring apparatus with contemporaneously selected flight data and recording said global positioning system location data, said inertial navigation system location data and said flight data onto said video tape in each said aircraft;

reading said encoded selected flight data from said video tape in each said aircraft and decoding said encoded selected flight data from each said aircraft;

creating a display file by processing the decoded selected flight data;

generating from said display file at least one of tabular, computer generated graphical, and video representations of each said aircraft operations during which each said aircraft selected flight data was collected;

decoding each said aircraft encoded global positioning location data and said inertial navigation system location data and entering said global positioning location data and said inertial navigation system location data in said display file;

comparing said decoded inertial navigation location data to said decoded global positioning location data and computing a correction factor representative of the error of said inertial navigation location data; and

correcting each said aircraft inertial navigation location data by applying said correction factor to each said aircraft inertial navigation location data in said display file.

2. The method of claim 1;

wherein said aircraft global positioning system location data is determined by obtaining differential global positioning system location data and wherein the computing of said correction factor is the computing of a differential correction factor.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding is by an asynchronous encoding protocol.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a plurality of display files from multiple aircraft and combining said display files into a single display file by synchronizing the data using a common time reference, and generating from said combined plurality of display files at least one of said tabular, computer generated graphical and video representations of said multiple aircraft operations during which said selected flight data was collected.

5. An apparatus to gather, process and display aircraft operations data comprising:

data storage means;

means for collecting selected aircraft flight data during aircraft operations and or storing said selected aircraft flight data in said data storage means;

means for encoding said stored selected aircraft flight data;

means for recording said encoded selected aircraft flight data onto video tape in a video tape recorder;

means for reading said encoded and recorded selected aircraft flight data from said video tape;

means for decoding said selected encoded aircraft flight data;

means for processing said decoded selected aircraft flight data to create a display file;

means for generating at least one of tabular, computer generated graphical, and video representations of said selected aircraft flight data to debrief said aircraft operations;

means for acquiring and inputting inertial navigation system location data into said data storage means;

means for monitoring said inertial navigation system location data;

means for determining aircraft position from global position system location data;

means for transferring said global position system location data to said means for monitoring said inertial navigation system location data;

means for encoding said global positioning system location data and said inertial navigation system location data in said means for monitoring with said selected aircraft flight data;

means for decoding said global positioning system location data and said inertial system location data;

means for transferring said global positioning system location data and said inertial navigation system location data into said display file;

means for comparing said inertial navigation system location data with said global positioning system location data and means for computing a correction factor for the difference in aircraft location determined by the inertial navigation system and by the global positioning system; and

means for correcting said aircraft inertial navigation system location data by applying said correction factor to the aircraft inertial navigation location data in said display file.

6. An apparatus as in claim 5 wherein:

said means for determining said global position location data comprises a differential global positioning system and said means for computing said correction factor comprises means for computing a differential correction factor.

7. An apparatus as in claim 5 further comprising:

means for creating a plurality of said display files generated from multiple aircraft;

means for combining said display files from multiple aircraft into a single display file comprising time synchronization means; and

means for generating at least one of said tabular, computer generated graphical, and video representations of said combined display files.

8. An apparatus to gather, process and display aircraft operations data comprising:

a flight monitor containing a central processing unit for selecting and collecting aircraft flight data during aircraft operations;

a memory storage device connected to said flight monitor to hold said selected aircraft flight data;

a digital encoding device connected to said memory storage device to format said selected aircraft flight data by an asynchronous protocol;

a digital video tape recorder containing a video tape and connected to receive said encoded data from said encoding device;

a video encoder connected to said digital video tape recorder for detecting vertical and composite synchronization signals in the video tape and for determining the number of horizontal video lines per video tape window;

a switching circuit connected to said digital encoding device and said video tape recorder, to transmit said asynchronously encoded selected aircraft flight data onto said video tape at a rate of one byte per line of video tape window;

a video decoder to detect said asynchronously encoded selected aircraft flight data on said video tape and to transmit said selected aircraft flight data to a data storage device;

a ground station comprising a computer connected to said data storage device for producing a display file from said selected aircraft flight data in said data storage device, and for generating at least one of tabular, computer generated graphical, and video representations of said selected aircraft flight data to facilitate debriefing of said aircraft operations.