Patent ID: 8620495

Claim:
An air data and stall protection system comprising: first and second electronic multi-function probes (MFPs) positionable adjacent an aircraft skin, each of the first and second electronic MFPs comprising: a plurality of pressure sensing ports; one or more electronics housings; air data processing circuitry positioned within the one or more electronics housings and configured to generate air data parameters as a function of pressures at the plurality of pressure sensing ports, the air data parameters including airspeed and altitude of the aircraft; stall protection system processing circuitry positioned within the one or more electronics housings and configured to detect stall conditions as a function of at least one air data parameter from the air data processing circuitry, the stall protection system processing circuitry generating stall protection system outputs indicative of the stall conditions; and first and second electronics channels positioned within the one or more electronics housings; a heater element; and a heater control circuit having a software control input for controlling the heater element and a hardware control input for controlling the heater element, the heater control circuit being configured to give heater control priority to the hardware control input; wherein the first and second electronics channels of the first electronic MFP are electrically coupled, respectively, to the first and second electronics channels of the second electronic MFP to provide first and second air data systems each providing aircraft air data parameter estimation, and wherein in each of the first and second electronic MFPs the stall protection system processing circuitry is implemented within at least one of the first and second electronics channels such that each of the first and second air data systems has a corresponding stall protection system.