Systems and methods for power reduction in formation flight
AssigneeTextron Innovations Inc.
InventorsKip Gregory Campbell, Juan Li
Life of this patent
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Abstract
According to one implementation of the present disclosure, a method for formation flight is disclosed. The method includes: during flight, arranging for a first aircraft to fly into a proximity range of a second aircraft; and determining first aircraft positioning based on power consumption data of the first aircraft, where the first aircraft positioning corresponds to power-reducing formation flight of the first aircraft.
Claims20
A method of formation flight, comprising:
- during flight, arranging for a first aircraft not a part of a V-flight formation to fly into a proximity range of a second aircraft to be detected by the second aircraft and to request entry into the flight formation with the second aircraft;
- and
- enabling, upon the request being accepted, communication between the trailing and lead aircrafts;
- and
- determining first aircraft positioning based on power consumption data of the first aircraft,
- wherein the first aircraft positioning relative to the second aircraft is based on energy conservation formation flight of the first aircraft.
A flight computer system comprising:
- a processor;
- and a memory accessible to the processor, the memory storing instructions that are executable by the processor to perform operations comprising:
- flying into a proximity range of a second aircraft to be detected by the second aircraft and to request a new V-flight formation with the second aircraft;
- enabling, upon the request being accepted, communication between the trailing and lead aircrafts;
- determining in a first positioning, a first rate of energy dissipation of a first aircraft over a first interval;
- determining, in a second positioning, a second rate of energy dissipation of the first aircraft over a second interval;
- determining whether the second rate of energy dissipation is less than the first rate of energy dissipation;
- and
- evaluating whether the first or the second positioning, relative to a second aircraft in the new flight formation with the first aircraft, is an optimal positioning, wherein the optimal positioning corresponds to a reduction in energy dissipation in comparison to an initial positioning or below a power dissipation rate threshold.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:
- flying into a proximity range of a second aircraft to be detected by the second aircraft and to request a new V-flight formation with the second aircraft;
- determining, in a first positioning, a first rate of energy dissipation of a first aircraft over a first interval;
- enabling, upon the request being accepted, communication between the trailing and lead aircrafts in a second positioning,
- determining a second rate of energy dissipation of the first aircraft over a second interval;
- determining whether the second rate of energy dissipation is less than the first rate of energy dissipation;
- and
- evaluating whether the first or the second positioning, relative to a second aircraft in the new flight formation with the first aircraft, is an optimal positioning, wherein the optimal positioning corresponds to a reduction in energy dissipation in comparison to an initial positioning or below a power dissipation rate threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.