Monitoring and control system for enhancing ground movement safety in aircraft equipped with non-engine drive means

An improved monitoring and control method that enhances pilot situational awareness and ground travel safety of aircraft driven independently without aircraft engines during ground travel into and out of and within ramp areas at an airport, comprising:

• a. equipping one or more aircraft for independent ground travel without aircraft engines by mounting electric drive motors within nose landing gear wheels or within main landing gear wheels and operating the electric drive motors to drive the one or more aircraft independently during ground travel into and out of and within the ramp areas at the airport;
• b. defining a clearance distance determined to prevent a collision between aircraft wings of the one or more aircraft and other aircraft, ground vehicles, ground objects, and ground personnel that are potential collision or ground incident threats as the aircraft are driven by the electric drive motors during the ground travel;
• c. mounting selected monitoring and sensing devices in selected information-obtaining locations on the one or more aircraft comprising locating speed sensors and torque sensors on the electric drive motors and on the nose or main landing gear wheels, and locating proximity sensors, cameras, or both proximity sensors and cameras on one or more aircraft exterior surfaces comprising a tip of each wing, a nose end, a tail end, and landing gears;
• d. obtaining information from the monitoring and sensing devices in real time as the electric drive motors are operated to drive the one or more aircraft independently during the ground travel obtaining real time information and processing the obtained information to identify potential collision or ground incident threats within the defined clearance distance, and transmitting the processed information to a control system on the one or more aircraft;
• and
• e. in response to the processed information identifying a potential collision or ground incident threat within the defined clearance distance, automatically or manually operating the electric drive motors as required to continue moving the one or more aircraft along a ground travel path that maintains the defined clearance distance and avoids the identified potential collision or ground incident threat or to stop the one or more aircraft when the identified potential collision or ground incident threat is present within the defined clearance distance.