Patent ID: 7426388

Claim:
A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising: a ground data link unit that continuously obtains flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during an entire flight of the aircraft from at least take-off to landing, said ground data link unit comprising: a) an archival data store operative to continuously accumulate and continuously store flight performance data during an entire flight of the aircraft from at least take-off to landing, and b) a 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 the flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said archival data store during an entire flight of the aircraft from at least take-off to landing over a wireless RF communication signal; a ground based cellular infrastructure comprising a receiver that receives the wireless RF communication signal from the aircraft and demodulates the signal to obtain the flight performance data; and a ground subsystem coupled to said cellular infrastructure that receives said flight performance data.