The Boeing Company

David Erdos

Timothy McNally Mitchell

Tri Minh Phan

In one embodiment a communications system includes an unmanned vehicle and a communications station located remote from the unmanned vehicle. The unmanned vehicle has a first wireless communications system and a first directional antenna for wirelessly communicating with the remote communications station. A first antenna control system tracks the remote communications station and aims the first directional antenna, in real time, at the remote communications station during wireless communications with the remote communications station. The remote communications station has a second wireless communications system having a second directional antenna for wirelessly communicating with the unmanned vehicle. A second antenna control system of the remote communications station tracks the unmanned vehicle and aims the second directional antenna at the unmanned vehicle, in real time, during wireless communications with the unmanned vehicle.

System and method for optimized unmanned vehicle communication using telemetry

A free space optical communications link is established, for example, between a commercial aircraft and an airport ground terminal unit, the link being asymmetric in the sense that a downlink to the aircraft has a much higher bandwidth than the reverse link from the aircraft so that the system is adapted for quickly loading large amounts of data (e.g., in-flight entertainment) onto the aircraft while still providing enough bandwidth for the lesser amounts of data (e.g., maintenance data) required to be transmitted from the aircraft to ground. Such adaptation provides significant benefits over standard, commercially available, free space optical communications systems. For example, equipment on the aircraft can be much smaller and lighter than ground unit equipment; and the communications link can allow for greater uncertainty in the alignment of the optical transceivers than do current free space optical communication systems and can allow for operation in harsher environmental conditions.

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Rogersville, MO, United States of America

David Erdos