US 6,005,513 AGranted

Portable flight guidance and tracking system

AssigneeMcDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company

InventorW. Mark Hardesty

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Abstract

A portable three-dimensional position and velocity data archiving system for use with an aircraft during flight testing and evaluations. The system includes a ground based system and an airborne system. Each system includes a GPS receiver electrically connected with a GPS antenna for receiving and interpreting GPS signals transmitted from a GPS satellite constellation. Each system also includes a radio communication device for transferring position and velocity data as well as error correction data and guidance cues between the ground and airborne systems. The portable system acquires, processes, archives, and provides precise three-dimensional position and velocity data for the aircraft in real time. Information regarding aircraft position, direction, velocity, acceleration and any correction needs referenced to a selected coordinate system is immediately presented to a vehicle piloting crew on analog as well as digital indicators.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A portable system for flight testing an aircraft, said portable flight test system operable in conjunction with GPS signals broadcast from a GPS satellite constellation for determining and archiving, in real time, position and velocity data of the aircraft during a test flight, said portable system comprising:

a ground based GPS antenna for receiving GPS signals transmitted from the GPS satellite constellation, said ground based GPS antenna positioned at a first reference location;
a ground based GPS receiver electrically connected with the ground based GPS antenna for receiving and interpreting GPS signals from the ground based GPS antenna and for generating position and correction data for the reference location;
a ground based processor electrically connected with the ground based GPS receiver;
a first communication device electrically connected with each of said ground based GPS receiver and processor;
a portable airborne system for attachment to said aircraft, said airborne system including:
(a) an airborne GPS antenna attached to said aircraft for receiving GPS signals broadcast from the GPS;
(b) an airborne GPS receiver electrically connected with the airborne GPS antenna for receiving and interpreting GPS signals from the airborne GPS antenna and for generating position data for the aircraft;
(c) a second communication device electrically connected with said airborne GPS receiver, said second communication device for transmitting and receiving data with said first communication device;
and
(d) an airborne processor electrically connected with the airborne GPS receiver and the second communication device, said airborne processor for processing and archiving the position data from the airborne GPS receiver to determine position and velocity data, in real time, for the aircraft;
and
wherein said ground based GPS receiver and processor and said airborne GPS receiver and processor communicate electronically through the first and the second communication devices to determine differences between an actual aircraft position and velocity profile and the predetermined position and velocity profile of the test flight plan.

9 more elements

A portable guidance and tracking system for determining and archiving, in real time, position and velocity data of an aircraft during a test flight and for providing a plurality of flight guidance cues to the aircraft relative to a test flight plan, said portable guidance and tracking system comprising:

a ground based GPS antenna for receiving GPS signals transmitted from a GPS satellite constellation, said ground based GPS antenna positioned at a first reference location;
a ground based GPS receiver electrically connected with the ground based GPS antenna for receiving and interpreting GPS signals from the ground based GPS antenna and for generating position and correction data for the reference location;
a ground based processor electrically connected with the ground based GPS receiver;
a first communication device electrically connected with each of said ground based GPS receiver and processor;
an airborne GPS antenna attached to said aircraft for receiving GPS signals transmitted from the GPS satellite constellation;
an airborne GPS receiver electrically connected with the airborne GPS antenna and attached to the aircraft, said airborne GPS receiver for receiving and interpreting GPS signals from the airborne GPS antenna and for generating position data for the aircraft;
a second communication device attached to the aircraft, said second communication device for transmitting and receiving data with said first communication device;
an airborne processor electrically connected with the airborne GPS receiver and the second communication device, said airborne processor for processing and archiving the position data from the airborne GPS receiver and the position and correction data from the ground based GPS receiver to determine and archive position data and velocity data, in real time, for the aircraft;
and
an indicator mounted within said aircraft for receiving and displaying said plurality of flight guidance cues;
and
wherein the ground based GPS receiver and processor and the airborne GPS receiver and processor communicate electronically through the first and the second communication devices.

9 more elements

A method of determining and archiving, in real time and in three dimensions, position, velocity and acceleration data relative to time for an aircraft during a test flight, said method comprising the steps:

providing a portable test range comprising:
(a) a base system having a base GPS receiver electrically connected with a base GPS antenna for receiving and interpreting GPS signals transmitted from a GPS satellite constellation, said base GPS receiver electrically connected with a base computer and each of said base GPS receiver and said base computer electrically connected with a first radio communication device;
(b) an airborne system having an airborne GPS receiver electrically connected with an airborne GPS antenna for receiving and interpreting GPS signals transmitted from the GPS, said airborne GPS receiver electrically connected with an airborne computer and each of said airborne GPS receiver and said airborne computer electrically connected with a second radio communication device for transmitting and receiving with said first communicating device;
and
(c) a test range for supporting the base system;
determining a test flight plan having a predetermined position and velocity profile for the aircraft;
identifying a reference location within the test range;
acquiring three dimensional position data for the reference location using the base system;
acquiring three dimensional position data in real time for the aircraft using the airborne system;
updating the three dimensional position data for the aircraft during the aircraft test flight using the airborne system;
communicating between the first communication device and the second communication device for transferring the three dimensional position data for the aircraft and the reference location between the airborne system and the base system;
processing the three dimensional position data for the aircraft and the reference location using the base and airborne computers to determine static and dynamic aircraft position data, velocity data and acceleration data relative to the reference location;
and
archiving the processed data to an electronic storage medium within at least one of the base and airborne computers.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.