Surface-based passive millimeter-wave landing aid

A surface-based passive millimeter-wave landing system for guiding aircraft, said system comprising:

• a control tower;
• an aircraft landing runway;
• at least one aircraft flying along an aircraft glidepath towards the runway for landing;
• and
• a camera unit positioned on the ground relative to the runway, said camera unit including a millimeter-wave sensor that is directed towards the aircraft glide path and detects millimeter-wave radiation from a scene including the glidepath, said camera unit further including an image converter that combines the image with glidepath reference indicia and a transmitter that transmits the combined image to the control tower and the aircraft that is displayed in the aircraft and in the control tower so that a pilot of the aircraft and control tower personnel view the aircraft as it approaches the runway.

A method of controlling the flight of an aircraft, said method comprising the steps of:

• directing a millimeter-wave camera unit towards an aircraft traffic location occupied by at least one aircraft;
• detecting millimeter-wave radiation from the sky at the aircraft traffic location occupied by the at least one aircraft;
• generating an image of the sky from the detected millimeter-wave radiation including the aircraft;
• and
• transmitting the image to the at least one aircraft flying through the aircraft traffic location that is displayed in the aircraft.

A surface-based aircraft landing system comprising:

• an aircraft landing runway;
• at least one aircraft flying along an aircraft glidepath towards the runway for landing;
• and
• at least one camera unit positioned on the ground relative to the runway and generating an image of a scene including the glidepath and the aircraft, said camera unit transmitting the image to the aircraft that is displayed in the aircraft to allow a pilot of the aircraft to view the aircraft as it approaches the runway, wherein the at least one aircraft includes a transmitter that transmits a coded signal as received with a camera unit and is included in the image to identify the aircraft.

A method of controlling the flight of an aircraft, said method comprising the steps of:

• detecting millimeter-wave radiation from the sky at an aircraft traffic location occupied by the aircraft;
• generating an image of the sky from the detected millimeter-wave radiation including the aircraft;
• transmitting the image to the at least one aircraft flying through the aircraft traffic location that is displayed in the aircraft;
• and
• transmitting a coded signal from the aircraft to a camera unit that detects the millimeter wave radiation.