Wireless, frequency-agile spread spectrum ground link-based aircraft data communication system

A system for exchanging information to and from an aircraft comprising:

• a ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising:
• a) an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of said aircraft, and
• b) a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during flight over a first wideband spread spectrum communication signal, and a receiver for receiving uploaded data over a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal;
• an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the spread spectrum signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data, and a transmitter that transmits data for uploading to the aircraft over a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal;
• an airport based archival data store coupled to said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver that receives and stores said flight performance data to be uploaded to the aircraft;
• and
• an airport based processor coupled to said archival data store for retrieving flight performance data from the airport based archival data store for further processing.

A method of providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising the steps of:

• acquiring flight performance data of an aircraft during flight of the aircraft;
• accumulating and storing within an archival memory of a ground data link unit the flight performance data during flight of the aircraft;
• after the aircraft lands at an airport at completion of the flight, downloading the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored within the archival data store during the flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal to an airport based spread spectrum receiver;
• demodulating the received spread spectrum signal to obtain the flight performance data;
• storing the demodulated flight performance data within an airport based archival data storage;
• and
• retrieving the flight performance data via an airport based processor for further processing.

A method of exchanging data to and from an aircraft comprising the steps of:

• acquiring flight performance data of an aircraft during flight of the aircraft;
• accumulating and storing within an archival memory of a ground data link unit the flight performance data during flight of the aircraft;
• after the aircraft lands at an airport at completion of the flight, downloading the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored within the archival memory during the flight over a first wideband spread spectrum communication signal to an airport based spread spectrum transceiver;
• demodulating the received spread spectrum signal to obtain the flight performance data;
• storing the demodulated flight performance data within an airport based archival data store;
• storing data to be uploaded to the airport based aircraft within the airport based archival data store;
• retrieving the data to be uploaded;
• and
• transmitting the data from an airport based spread spectrum transceiver to the aircraft along a second wideband spread spectrum communication signal to the ground data link unit located within the aircraft.

A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:

• an aircraft comprising a plurality of flight parameter transducers and flight data acquisition equipment distributed throughout the aircraft;
• a ground data link unit operatively coupled to the plurality of flight parameter transducers and flight data acquisition equipment for obtaining flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance, said ground data link unit further comprising:
• a) an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of said aircraft, and
• b) a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during said flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal;
• an airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the spread spectrum signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data;
• an airport based archival data store coupled to said airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver that receives and stores said flight performance data;
• and
• an airport based processor coupled to said archival data store for retrieving flight data performance from the airport based archival data store for further processing.