Patent ID: 6104914
Filing Date: 2000-08-15
Classification: G05D,G08G,H04B

Abstract:
A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:a ground data link unit that obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising:a) an archival data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of the aircraft, andb) a wideband spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative after the aircraft completes its flight and lands at an airport to download said flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during flight over a wideband spread spectrum communication signal; andan airport based wideband spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the wideband spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data; andan adaptive power control unit that varies an emitted power level of the wideband spread spectrum communication signal based upon the geographic location of the airport.