Wireless landing gear monitoring system

A method for mapping and monitoring aircraft landing gear systems, said method comprising:

• using the rotation of a subject aircraft landing gear wheel to drive a permanent magnet generator (PMG) mounted to a hubcap coupled to the subject landing gear wheel;
• operating a wheel speed sensor, mounted to the hubcap, using a current output by the PMG;
• communicating subject landing gear wheel rotational speed data, provided by the wheel speed sensor, to at least one remotely located transceiver using wireless signals;
• acquiring mapping data and an identity marker used to identify a positional location of the subject landing gear wheel with respect to other landing gear wheels within the landing gear by disrupting the wireless signal communicated to the remotely located transceiver;
• and
• storing the mapping data and the identity marker in the remotely located transceiver.

A method for mapping a location within an aircraft landing gear for each of a plurality of wireless landing gear monitoring systems, said method comprising:

• mounting a hubcap transceiver included in each monitoring system to a respective one of a plurality of landing gear wheel hubcaps;
• transmitting a wireless signal including a marker signal from the hubcap transceiver to at least one of a plurality of distant transceivers coupled to the aircraft;
• acquiring mapping data pertaining to a positional location of at least one of the hubcap transceivers by activating a mapping command utilizing a maintenance display terminal, using the maintenance display terminal to select a specific landing gear monitoring system to be mapped and disrupting the wireless signal transmitted from the hubcap transceiver of the landing gear monitoring system selected to be mapped;
• and
• displaying the mapping data on the maintenance display terminal such that the positional location of the hubcap transceiver is illustrated.

A method for mapping a location within an aircraft landing gear for each of a plurality of wireless landing gear monitoring systems, wherein each monitoring system is carried on a respective one of a plurality of landing gear wheel hubcaps, said method comprising:

• transmitting a wireless signal including a marker signal from a hubcap transceiver included in each monitoring system to at least one of a plurality of remote transceivers coupled to the aircraft, wherein each marker signal contains a signal characteristic unique to the respective monitoring system from which it is transmitted;
• activating a mapping command at a maintenance display terminal adapted to communicate with each remote transceiver;
• selecting, using the maintenance display terminal, a specific landing gear monitoring system to be mapped;
• disrupting the wireless signal transmitted from the hubcap transceiver of the landing gear monitoring system selected to be mapped;
• identifying the disrupted wireless signal using the remote transceiver;
• correlating the identified disrupted wireless signal and associated marker signal to the landing gear monitoring system selected to be mapped and storing data expressing the correlation in the remote transceiver;
• transmitting the correlation data from the remote transceiver to the maintenance display terminal;
• transmitting the correlation data from the remote transceiver to at least one other remote transceiver and storing the information in the other remote transceiver;
• and
• monitoring the operational status of the landing gear wheel associated with the selected monitoring system, via the maintenance display terminal.