Did You Know...
...that Thomas Edison's patent application on his phonograph was approved by the Patent Office in just seven weeks? In contrast, it took Gordon Gould, the inventor of the laser, 30 years to obtain his patent -- finally awarded in 1988!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7641152 | Dynamic adjustment of wing surfaces for variable camber The movable surfaces affecting the camber of a wing are dynamically adjusted to optimize wing camber for optimum lift/drag ratios under changing conditions during a given flight phase. In a preferred embodiment, an add-on dynamic adjustment control module provides c... | 01/05/2010 |
| 7571879 | Automatic conversion system for tiltrotor aircraft One embodiment of the present invention is a method for automatically controlling the conversion of a tiltrotor aircraft. An airspeed command for the tiltrotor aircraft is received. The airspeed command is converted to a pylon position. A difference between the airs... | 08/11/2009 |
| 7543780 | Unmanned air vehicle transmission line docking surveillance A small unmanned air vehicle system having autonomous electrical energy transmission line docking capability and especially usable in military or other surveillance situations. Transmission line field sensing by the small unmanned air vehicle is used as an addition ... | 06/09/2009 |
| 7422176 | Method for ensuring the safety of an aircraft flying horizontally at low speed A method for ensuring the safety of an aircraft flying horizontally at low speed includes determining a lower speed threshold for the aircraft, measuring the actual speed of the aircraft and comparing the actual speed with the threshold. When the actual speed reache... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7410133 | Miniature trailing edge effector for aerodynamic control Improved miniature trailing edge effectors for aerodynamic control are provided. Three types of devices having aerodynamic housings integrated to the trailing edge of an aerodynamic shape are presented, which vary in details of how the control surface can move. A bu... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7383104 | Low-noise flight support system It is an object of the present invention to provide a system that is used to provide support so that a pilot can perform flight operations that reduce noise pollution, by devising this system so that noise conditions on the ground are calculated and displayed on the... | 06/03/2008 |
| 7364121 | Methods and systems for automatically controlling aircraft takeoff rolls Methods and systems for automatically controlling aircraft takeoff rolls. A method in accordance with one embodiment of the invention includes receiving an indication of a target takeoff roll path for an aircraft, and automatically controlling a direction of an airc... | 04/29/2008 |
| 7357358 | Aircraft leading edge device systems and corresponding sizing methods Aircraft leading edge device systems and methods for sizing such systems are disclosed. In one embodiment, a spanwise lift coefficient distribution for an airfoil corresponding to at least one design condition and at least one aircraft angle of attack is identified,... | 04/15/2008 |
| 7353614 | Vehicle compass system with continuous automatic calibration The compass system of the present invention utilizes an improved calibration routine in which a processing circuit of the compass recalibrates the compass each time three data points are obtained from a magnetic field sensor that meet predetermined criteria. One suc... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7354022 | Device for monitoring tiltable flaps on aircraft wings A device for monitoring tiltable flaps on aircraft wings including rotary sensors at the rotary axis of the flap and associated with each actuating element. A rotation sensor is connected to the actuating elements by a spring band. The band is a coupled for angle tr... | 04/08/2008 |
| 7338018 | Systems and methods for controlling aircraft flaps and spoilers Systems and methods for controlling aircraft flaps and spoilers. Systems in accordance with some embodiments include a wing having a trailing edge, and a flap positioned proximate to the wing trailing edge and being deployable relative to the wing between a first fl... | 03/04/2008 |
| H2206 | Tactile side-slip corrective yaw control for aircraft Side-slip of an aircraft during flight is detected through a pair of pressure sensors fixedly mounted on opposite lateral sides of the aircraft fuselage. Pressure measurement signals at said sensors are fed to electronic circuitry within the aircraft for generating ... | 12/04/2007 |
| 7260453 | Checklist error mitigation system A checklist error mitigation system and method are provided to reduce the chance for error when completing a checklist. The system may receive a checklist step from an electronic or voice checklist system and highlights any switch, lever, dial or control that needs ... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7209809 | Method and apparatus for obtaining high integrity and availability in multi-channel systems Systems and methods for asynchronous multi-channel data communications are provided. An embodiment of the invention includes a minimum of three channels for digital computation in Primary Flight Computers and four channels for digital/analog conversion in Actuation ... | 04/24/2007 |
| 7182296 | Methods and apparatus for error-tolerant wrap-back ACE monitor Methods and apparatus are provided for more reliably transferring operational control for various aircraft flight control surfaces from a first sub-system to a second sub-system. The present invention provides an Actuator Control Electronics (ACE) wrap-back module t... | 02/27/2007 |
| 7181020 | Audio feedback regarding aircraft operation A method, system, and apparatus, for providing audio feedback regarding the operation of an aircraft. In one aspect, microphones are placed next to sound sources, which could be components of the aircraft. Audio inputs are received from the microphone and analyzed b... | 02/20/2007 |
| 7100870 | Jam tolerant electromechanical actuation systems and methods of operation In a vehicle, having a fixed supporting structure and a load movable relative thereto, a jam tolerant actuating system, a method for controlling this system including: Locating a physical coupling/decoupling mechanism between the load and an actuator assembly as clo... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7017861 | Control system for actuators in an aircraft A control system for calculating control commands for actuators in an aircraft, wherein the control commands are calculated by computers distributed in the craft in dependence on input signals containing parameters that serve as the basis for said commands, wherein ... | 03/28/2006 |
| 6993420 | Method for monitoring a plurality of systems of an aircraft including displaying tasks already performed A method for monitoring a plurality of systems of an aircraft including the steps of monitoring the systems and for detecting a failure of at least one of the systems, displaying information output by the monitoring unit including at least one failure condition incl... | 01/31/2006 |
| 6976656 | Method for controlling the flight of an aircraft A method for controlling an aircraft includes the steps of receiving acceleration data related to an acceleration of a front portion of the aircraft, and receiving pitch, roll, and/or yaw rate data related to a rate of a center portion of the aircraft. The method al... | 12/20/2005 |
| 6940241 | Circuit using current limiting to reduce power consumption of actuator with DC brush motor A drive circuit including a motor for positioning a damper from a rest position to a stalled position and protect the drive mechanism from damage due to increased current to the drive motor when the damper stalls by including a current limiter to prevent the current... | 09/06/2005 |
| 6935596 | Process and system for piloting an aircraft The piloting system (1) for generating orders for piloting the aircraft according to at least one piloting axis, for example the pitch axis, the roll axis, the yaw axis or the engine thrust control axis, comprises at least two piloting means (2, 3), ea... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6923405 | Enhanced rudder control system A reliably redundant PCU for an aircraft. The PCU includes an override mechanism coupled to the aircraft's control path and a first control member coupled to the override mechanism whereby the override mechanism attempts to transmit a command from the command path t... | 08/02/2005 |
| 6922625 | Jet engine control and protection system and method A highly reliable, multi-channel control, monitoring, and protection system includes at least three processors in each of the redundant channels, a main processor, and first and second monitor processors. The main processor performs the main control functions, and t... | 07/26/2005 |
| 6912453 | Device for monitoring a plurality of systems of an aircraft including a display displaying tasks already performed A device for monitoring a plurality of systems of an aircraft including a monitoring unit configured to monitor the systems and to detect a failure of at least one of the systems, a display configured to display information output by the monitoring unit including at... | 06/28/2005 |
| 6905091 | System and method for controlling the acoustic signature of a device A system receives information regarding current flight conditions of a device such as an aircraft and determines the acoustic level of the sonic boom and/or other noise generated by the device during operation. The current acoustic level is compared to a desired lev... | 06/14/2005 |
| 6863242 | Method and system for controlling an aircraft control surface A system for controlling an aircraft control surface may include a control surface having at least two control surface elements mounted to rotate about an axis on a stabilizer element of the aircraft. An actuator with at least two actuating devices moves the control... | 03/08/2005 |
| 6860452 | Aircraft flight surface control system A distributed control system is provided where the controllers are split into two dissimilar groups and flight control responsibility is further allocated within each group such that one entire group plus one further controller can fail without compromising the pilo... | 03/01/2005 |
| 6816823 | Process for designing flight controllers Process for designing flight controllers, in which first for the rigid airplane and then for the elastic airplane the damping and the phase delay for each excitation frequency is determined, and the flight controller is adapted in such a manner that the structural r... | 11/09/2004 |
| 6793176 | Automatic control of air vehicle during catapult launch A control system and method for automatic control of an air vehicle during catapult launch includes a first pitch axis partition that includes an altitude hold control loop and a vertical rate control loop, and a second pitch axis partition that includes a constant ... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6793173 | Automatic control device for a helicopter and automatic control system comprising such a device A device for the automatic control of a helicopter may include two objective algorithms associated with the collective axis, each of these algorithms automatically determining a command for operating the collective pitch of the blades of the main rotor of the helico... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6778884 | System and method for generating consolidated gas turbine control tables A method for generating a power setting parameter table. The method includes the steps of generating an index from a plurality of first and second inputs and determining a power setting parameter corresponding to each index and second input. The first inputs may inc... | 08/17/2004 |
| 6721682 | Aerodynamic prediction using semiempirical prediction techniques and methods therefor An improved aeroprediction code (APC) allows aerodynamics to be predicted for Mach numbers up to 20 for configurations with flares. Moreover, the improved APC advantageously extends the static aerodynamic predictions for Mach numbers less than 1.2, improves the body... | 04/13/2004 |
| 6697718 | Device for monitoring a plurality of systems of an aircraft, in particular of a transport aircraft A device for monitoring a plurality of systems of an aircraft includes a monitoring unit that monitors the systems and detects a failure of one of the systems. A display device, upon detection of a failure and throughout a corresponding failure-handling p... | 02/24/2004 |
| 6666400 | Network hub for a reconfigurable data network having physical transmission media A data network includes a plurality of network devices spaced apart from one another and distributed at multiple locations, a plurality of cables each coupled to a respective one of said plurality of network devices by a respective one of a plurality of f... | 12/23/2003 |
| 6651930 | Process and control system for an aircraft control surface actuated by multiple hydraulic jacks and with modular power Control system for a control surface (100) of an aircraft comprising at least one actuator (102, 104) of the control surface, connected to a hydraulic circuit and equipped with at least two power jacks (110) capable of operating in at least one activated ... | 11/25/2003 |
| 6622972 | Method and system for in-flight fault monitoring of flight control actuators A method and system for detecting in-flight fault characteristics of flight control actuators is provided. Commands are sequentially sent to sets of actuators during flight in a manner that is expected to produce little or no net aircraft motion. The dete... | 09/23/2003 |
| 6592071 | Flight control system for a hybrid aircraft in the lift axis A flight control system includes a lift control algorithm which selectively communicates with the pitch command of the flight system control algorithm. The lift control algorithm selects the proper control commands to coordinate an effective transition be... | 07/15/2003 |
| 6578794 | Methods and systems for jet engine overthrust protection A method for sensing and reacting to jet engine fan speed in excess of a fan speed computed from an aircraft throttle input is disclosed. Engine fan speeds are detected by adding test conditions to a main central processing unit (CPU) and adding test cond... | 06/17/2003 |
| 6572376 | Avionics maintenance training device An avionics maintenance training device to train cognitive and psychomotor skills is disclosed. The training device is a physical mock-up of an actual aircraft's cabin assembly. The avionics maintenance training device includes actual avionics components ... | 06/03/2003 |