Television antenna directing and tracking system for television program network between air-borne and ground offices

An automatic television antenna directing and tracking system comprising

• 1. a repeating antenna mounted on an aircraft for repeating television video signals to a ground office;
• 2. an air-borne station mounted on a said aircraft and including a control system for automatically directing said antenna toward said ground office, said control system including direction angle setting means, coordinate transforming means and an antenna driving unit, said direction angle setting means comprising means for giving the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate as measured from said ground office to said coordinate transforming means for directing said repeating antenna toward said ground office, said coordinate transforming means including means for transforming the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the longitude-latitude coordinate into the azimuth angle and the elevation angle on the air-borne coordinate based on the azimuth angle of the craft head, pitching angle and the rolling angle of said aircraft, and said antenna driving unit including a servo-loop containing a servo-motor and a gear train for rotating the azimuth angle shaft and the elevation angle shaft of said repeating antenna, and
• 3. a ground station in said ground office including a repeating receiving installation having a receiving parabola antenna, a tracking installation having a tracking parabola antenna and an angle command communication means, said tracking installation including means for directing said receiving parabola antenna of the repeating receiving installation toward said air-borne station, and said angle command communication means including means for detecting the azimuth angle and the elevation angle of said tracking parabola antenna of said tracking installation and means for transmitting an angle command signal to said air-craft.