Rannoch Corporation

Era Systems Corporation

Randolph Corporation

Bennett Cohen

Alexander E Smith

Carl A Evers

A method and apparatus for providing live display of aircraft flight information obtains aircraft data from at least two data sources selected from aircraft position and flight information from an ASDI (aircraft situational awareness display to industry) data source, aircraft location and identification from multilateration of an aircraft transponder data source, flight information from an ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) data source, and flight information from an airline flight information system data source. The data is then fused together to integrate aircraft information from at least two of the data sources to produce integrated aircraft information, and providing a real-time display of the integrated aircraft flight information over a network, a physically connected display, a cockpit display, or an airport ground vehicle display.

Correlation of flight track data with other data sources

A system for correlating secondary surveillance radar (SSR) data and ACARS data which results in a real time correlation of data which are unique to the separate existing systems. More specifically, a method is provided to attach flight identification data from ACARS signals to real time SSR data from Mode S transponders. Aircraft Mode S addresses are decoded and then converted to aircraft registration numbers using an algorithm or lookup table. Registration numbers are then correlated with registration numbers from decoded ACARS signals. The result is a real-time system which may provide an aircraft's registration information, including registration number, owner, make, and model, as well as its current flight identification number, and ACARS messages. As part of an aircraft multilateration system, the system provides an independent air traffic control picture complete with aircraft position and identification by flight number without the use of active radar equipment.

Method and apparatus for correlating flight identification data with secondary surveillance radar data

A method of triangulating aircraft transponder signals using a number of receivers connected to a central station over communication links includes applying at least one logic rule at each receiver to incoming transponder signals to filter redundant transponder signals, time-stamping filtered transponder signals, and transmitting time-stamped transponder signals to the central station. Logic rules include at least one of altitude filtering, Mode S, Mode A/C code filtering, and change filtering. Replies are accepted when a change in state is indicated, such that the only those replies indicating a change in state are time-stamped and sent to the central server.

The surveillance system provides a means to augment Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) with 'look alike ADS-B' or 'pseudo ADS-B' surveillance transmissions for aircraft which may not be ADS-B equipped. The system uses ground based surveillance to determine the position of aircraft not equipped with ADS-B, then broadcasts the identification/positional information over the ADS-B data link. ADS-B equipped aircraft broadcast their own position over the ADS-B data link. The system enables aircraft equipped with ADS-B and Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) to obtain surveillance information on all aircraft whether or not the proximate aircraft are equipped with ADS-B.

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Alexandria, VA, United States of America

Bennett Cohen