PROGNOSTIC HEALTH MONITOR FOR AIRCRAFT-BASED ANALOG ANGLE OF ATTACK (AoA) SENSORS

A prognostic health monitoring (PHM) system for aircraft-based analog angle of attack (AoA) sensors, the system comprising:

• at least one prognostic health monitoring (PHM) coordinator, the PHM coordinator including:
• at least one first communications interface configured for connecting the PHM coordinator to at least one of an aircraft-based analog AoA sensor, and an aircraft-based monitoring sensor;
• a memory configured for storage of 1) historical data including at least one prior responsiveness factor (RF) associated with each analog AoA sensor;
• at least one second communications interface configured for connecting the PHM coordinator to a ground control station;
• and
• at least one processor configured to:
• sample analog AoA data sensed by each analog AoA sensor;
• sample sensor health data sensed by the at least one monitoring sensor;
• determine, based on the analog AoA data and the sensor health data, a current responsiveness factor (RF) associated with each analog AoA sensor;
• determine, based on the current RF and at least one prior RF associated with each analog AoA sensor, a responsiveness trend associated with the analog AoA sensor;
• when the responsiveness trend deviates beyond at least one responsiveness threshold, generate an alert indicative of a fault condition associated with the analog AoA sensor;
• and
• forward the alert to the ground control station via the at least one second communications interface.