Aircraft in-flight center of gravity measuring system
AssigneeSundstrand Corporation
InventorJohn H. Glover
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In order to determine the location of the center of gravity of an aircraft in flight, an accelerometer is placed in the forward part of the aircraft and another is placed in the after part to produce signals representing the rotation of aircraft about an axis, preferably the yaw axis, through the aircraft center of gravity. The signals from the accelerometers are combined to produce a first signal having components that represent both motion of the aircraft and the location of the center of gravity along with a signal having a component representing the motion of the aircraft but substantially without a component representing the location of the center of gravity and these two signals are then combined to get a signal that represents the location of the aircraft center of gravity.
Claims28
An aircraft in flight center of gravity measuring system comprising:
- a pair of inertial sensors secured to the aircraft, each inertial sensor having a sensitive axis which is aligned so as to produce a signal representing the rotation of the aircraft about a predetermined axis through the aircraft center of gravity;
- and
- signal processing means connected to said inertial sensors including means for developing a signal from the output of the inertial sensors having components representing aircraft rotation about the predetermined axis and the location of the center of gravity and means coupled to the developing means for canceling the component representing aircraft rotation to generate a signal representing the location of the center of gravity of the aircraft while the aircraft is in flight.
An aircraft in flight center of gravity measuring system comprising:
- a plurality of inertial sensors secured to the aircraft which generate signals representing rotation of the aircraft about a predetermined axis through the aircraft center of gravity, wherein the inertial sensors include at least two accelerometers that generate signals representing rotation of the aircraft about the predetermined axis;
- and
- signal processing means connected to the inertial sensors for generating from the inertial sensors a signal representing the location of the center of gravity of the aircraft while the aircraft is in flight comprising means for generating a first signal including a component representing the location of the center of gravity and a component representing aircraft rotation about the predetermined axis, means for generating a second signal substantially without a component representing the rotation of the aircraft and means for combining the first and second signals to generate the signal representing the location of the center of gravity of the aircraft.
An aircraft in flight center of gravity measuring system comprising:
- a plurality of inertial sensors secured to the aircraft wherein the inertial sensors generate signals representing rotation of the aircraft about a predetermined axis through the aircraft center of gravity wherein the predetermined axis is the yaw axis of the aircraft;
- and
- signal processing means connected to the inertial sensors for generating from the inertial sensors a signal representing the location of the center of gravity of the aircraft while the aircraft is in flight.
An aircraft in-flight center of gravity measuring system comprising:
- first acceleration measuring means secured to said aircraft forward of the aircraft center of gravity for generating a first acceleration signal representing rotation of the aircraft about a predetermined axis through the aircraft center of gravity;
- second acceleration measuring means secured to said aircraft aft of the aircraft center of gravity for generating a second acceleration signal representing rotation of the aircraft about said predetermined axis;
- first combining means connected to said first and said second acceleration measuring means for combining said first acceleration signal with said second acceleration signal to generate a first combined signal having a component representing the location of the aircraft center of gravity and a component representing rotation of the aircraft;
- second combining means connected to said first and said second acceleration means for combining said first acceleration signal with said second acceleration signal to generate a second combined signal having a component representing rotation of the aircraft but substantially without a component representing the location of the aircraft center of gravity;
- third combining means connected to said first and said second combining means for combining said first and said second combined signals to generate a third combined signal having component representing the location of the center of gravity but substantially without components representing rotation of the aircraft;
- and
- center of gravity signal means connected to said third combining means for generating from said third combined signal a center of gravity signal representing the location of the aircraft center of gravity.
The system of claim 7 wherein said second combing means included subtracting means for subtracting one of said acceleration signals from the other of said acceleration signals to generate a difference signal.
The system of claim 8 wherein said first combining means is connected to said second combining means and includes means for multiplying said summed signal with said difference signal to generate said first combined signal.
An aircraft in-flight center of gravity measuring system comprising:
- a first accelerometer secured to the aircraft forward of the aircraft center of gravity with the sensitive axis of said first accelerometer aligned such that said first accelerometer will generate a first acceleration signal that represents rotation of the aircraft about a predetermined axis of the aircraft;
- a second accelerometer secured to the aircraft aft of the aircraft center of gravity with the sensitive axis of said second accelerometer aligned such that said second accelerometer generates a second acceleration signal representing the rotation of the aircraft about said predetermined axis of the aircraft;
- summing means connected to said first and said second accelerometers for adding said first accelerometer signal to said second acceleration signal to produce a summed signal;
- subtracting means connected to said first and second accelerometers for subtracting one of said accelerometer signals from the other to generate a difference signal;
- multiplication means connected to said summing means and said subtracting means for multiplying said summed signal with said difference signal to generate a first combined signal;
- squaring means connected to said subtracting means for squaring said difference signal to generate a second combined signal;
- dividing means connected to said multiplication means and said squaring means for dividing said first combined signal by said second combined signal to generate a third combination signal;
- and
- center of gravity signal means connected to said dividing means for generating from said third combination signal a center of gravity signal representing the location of the aircraft center of gravity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.