US 6,150,959 AGranted

System for monitoring the operation of an aircraft, especially a helicopter

AssigneeEurocopter

InventorSerge Alexandre Marc Germanetti

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Abstract

A system for monitoring the operation of an aircraft, especially a helicopter, which automatically provides information which relates to the operation of the aircraft. Data acquisition and processing units centralize data relating to the aircraft together and group them in information pages. At least one information page contains a flight report of at least the latest flight of the aircraft, which simultaneously provides a flight number, flight duration, number of cycles of the engines, number of cycles of the turbine, and any appropriate message regarding detected faults and/or whether any of the aircraft's limitations have been exceeded. A display unit displays the information within the view of at least one pilot of the aircraft. At the end of a flight, a selection unit automatically selects a flight report which is automatically displayed by the display.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for monitoring the operation of a helicopter, said system comprising:

data acquisition and processing means for providing information automatically which relates to operation of said helicopter, said information being grouped together in a plurality of information pages (P1 to P7) and centralized by said acquisition and processing means, after processing, wherein said acquisition and processing means form at least one information page (P6), from said plurality of information pages (P1 to P7), which contains a flight report of at least a latest flight of said helicopter, and said flight report comprises simultaneously at least the following information:
a flight number, a flight duration, a number of cycles of an engine or engines, a total number of cycles of the engine or engines, a number of cycles of a free turbine, a total number of cycles of the free turbine, and, at least one of:
a message indicating a detection of fault during the flight and a message indicating a detection of exceeding limitations of said helicopter;
display means for displaying within view of at least one pilot of said helicopter at least the information provided by said acquisition and processing means;
and
selection means for selecting, from among said plurality of information pages grouped together by said data acquisition and processing means, said at least one information page (P6) for display by said display means;
and wherein:
said selection means automatically selects, at an end of a flight of said helicopter, said flight report which is displayed automatically by said display means, only when an engine of said helicopter is shut down and a main rotor of said helicopter is idle.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.