Patent ID: 6308045
Filing Date: 2001-10-23
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 frequency hopping spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said archival data store, and comprising a transmitter that is operative to download the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during flight over a frequency hopping spread spectrum communication signal;a ground based spread spectrum transceiver comprising a receiver that receives the frequency hopping spread spectrum communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data;a ground based archival data store coupled to said ground based spread spectrum transceiver that receives and stores said flight performance data; anda ground based processor coupled to said archival data store for retrieving flight performance data from the ground based archival data store for further processing.