Patent ID: 6154637
Filing Date: 2000-11-28
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 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 one of a plurality of sub-band frequency channels of a spread spectrum communication signal;an airport based spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data, said airport based spread spectrum transceiver further comprising a probe transmission circuit that transmits a probe beacon on each sub-band frequency channel to said spread spectrum transceiver of said ground data link to determine which sub-band frequency channel is preferred.