Patent ID: 7586422

Claim:
A method for determining a real-time and expected braking conditions for aircraft landing on a runway comprising: collecting real-time braking data from aircraft landing on the runway using apparatus on the aircraft comprising at least one computer, wherein the braking data comprises initial touch-down runway locations of the landing aircraft, initial aircraft velocities at the initial touch-down runway locations, final runway locations of the aircraft, and final aircraft velocities at the final runway locations; calculating real-time braking performance measurements of the aircraft based on said real-time braking data using said apparatus, wherein the real-time braking performance measurements comprise real-time runway deceleration measurements of the landing aircraft; determining real-time normalized braking performance measurements based on said real-time braking performance measurements of said aircraft using said apparatus, wherein the real-time normalized braking performance measurements comprise expected braking performances of standard aircraft landing on said runway taking into account at least one of wind speed, wind direction, weights of the aircraft, types of the aircraft, air temperature, configurations of the aircraft, Minimum Equipment List conditions, thrust reverse conditions, non-normal conditions, the initial aircraft velocities at the initial touch-down runway locations, and the final aircraft velocities at the final runway locations; displaying in real-time at least one of said real-time braking performance measurements and said real-time normalized braking performance measurements to at least one of air traffic control and other aircraft in order to evaluate braking conditions in real-time; and determining in real-time expected braking performances for different types of aircraft landing on the runway based on said real-time normalized braking performance measurements.