Systems and methods for issuing a hard landing warning and providing maintenance advisories for hard landing incidents

#The following relates to aircrafts, and more particularly to systems and methods for issuing a hard landing warning and providing maintenance advisories for hard landing incidents.

#Aircraft, such as helicopters and airplanes, can be damaged during hard landings. Hard landings occur when the aircraft impacts the ground with a greater vertical speed than a designed normal landing force but with less force than a crash landing. Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods for warning a pilot of potential hard landings and for providing maintenance advisories for hard landing incidents.

#In accordance with one embodiment, an aircraft is provided. The aircraft may include, but is not limited to, an accelerometer configured to measure a deceleration experienced by the aircraft and a processor coupled to the accelerometer. The processor may be configured to determine if the aircraft experienced a hard landing if the deceleration experienced by the aircraft was greater than a predetermined threshold, and generate a maintenance advisory if the aircraft experienced a hard landing.

#Exemplary embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an aircraft having a hard landing system, in accordance with an embodiment;

#FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for monitoring for a hard landing, in accordance with an embodiment; and

#According to various exemplary embodiments, an aircraft having a hard landing prediction and warning system is provided. The hard landing prediction system may provide a warning to a pilot when the aircraft could experience a hard landing. The hard landing system may also provide a maintenance advisory when an aircraft has experienced a hard landing.

#FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an aircraft 100 having a hard landing prediction and warning system in accordance with an embodiment. The aircraft 100 may be any type of aircraft. In one embodiment, for example, the aircraft 100 may be a rotary-winged aircraft such as a helicopter. In another embodiment, for example, the aircraft 100 may be a fixed wing aircraft, such as an airplane. The aircraft 100 includes any number of aircraft components 110. The aircraft components 110 include the structural components, the mechanical components, and the electrical components that makeup the aircraft 100.

#The aircraft 100 also includes a processor 120. The processor 120 may be any type of processor. For example, the processor 120 could be a central processing unit, a graphical processing unit, a physics processing unit, an application specific integrated circuit, a microprocessor, a field programmable gate array or any other type of logic device or combination thereof. In one embodiment, for example, the processor 120 could be part of another aircraft system, such as a flight management system 140, discussed in further detail below.