System for controlling and communicating with aircraft

A system, comprising:

• an aircraft including an aircraft control system to control flight of the aircraft, aircraft sensors, at least one aircraft-based receiver/transmitter module, and a pilot audio system to provide audio to a human pilot of the aircraft and to transmit the audio to a ground-based aircraft control system;
• and
• the ground-based aircraft control system configured to generate control signals to control the flight of the aircraft, the ground-based aircraft control system comprising:
• at least one ground-based receiver/transmitter module configured to transmit the control signals from the ground-based aircraft control system to the aircraft control system, to receive sensor data from the aircraft, and to transmit audio signals to the pilot audio system and receive pilot audio;
• and
• a controller including a voice recognition system command module configured to analyze the audio signals to detect predetermined voice commands, to generate the control signals based on detecting the predetermined voice commands in the audio signals, and to transmit to the at least one ground-based receiver/transmitter module each of the audio signals and the control signals to transmit to the aircraft;
• wherein the controller is configured to transmit both audio signals of the voice commands and the control signals to the aircraft based on receiving the voice commands, and non-command voice audio signals perceivable by occupants of the aircraft.

A method of communicating with an aircraft, comprising:

• detecting a communications mode of a ground-based control system configured to control an aircraft, the aircraft including a pilot audio system to provide acoustic signals to a pilot;
• detecting a voice command in an audio signal based on detecting a voice command recognition mode of the ground-based control system;
• transmitting both a control signal and the voice command corresponding to the control signal to the aircraft based on detecting the voice command;
• and
• transmitting non-command voice communications to the aircraft based on detecting a non-command voice recognition mode of the ground-based control system, the non-command voice communications being perceivable by occupants of the aircraft.