General Electrodynamics Corporation

Nordic Technologies, Inc.

Nordic Industries, Inc.

Dick E Davis

Charles R Brazell

James W Manley

Jerome E Johnston

George R Lindberg

Gary W Kibler

James R Emmons

Amith M Kalaghatagi

James A Johnston

Charles B Brazell

According to one embodiment of the disclosure, a method of determining a center of gravity of an aircraft includes receiving a strut length for each of the gears of an aircraft, determining an arm length for each of the gears, and determining a center of gravity of the aircraft based on a relationship between the center of gravity and respective arm lengths for each of the gears. The arm length of each of the gears is determined according to the strut length of a gear strut of a respective gear and a relationship between the strut length of the gear strut to another gear of another aircraft and the arm length of the respective gear.

System and method for determining a center of gravity of an aircraft

A slide focus flashlight has a container with an aperture therein, a lamp disposed within the container, a reflector disposed within the container, and an actuator disposed in the opening of the container for sliding therein and having a first angled surface. A conductive shaft is disposed within the container, and a slide interface is coupled to the conductive shaft. The slide interface has a second angled surface for sliding against the first angled surface of the actuator. A power switch is provided for selectively energizing the lamp. The slide interface, actuator and power switch allow for single-handed focusing and energizing of the flashlight.

Slide focus flashlight

A self-contained stand-alone weighing system (10) comprises at least one weight supporting surface (24) for bearing the weight of an object, at least one transducer (60) coupled to the weight supporting surface (24) for producing a signal indicative of the weight, and a processor (66) for receiving the signal and producing a resultant weight signal. The resultant weight signal is then represented in a form perceptible to humans by a weight indicator (38). The self-contained weighing system (10) also comprises a rechargeable battery (36) for supplying electrical energy, and a housing (12,14) for enclosing the weighing system (10) to form a single unit.

Self-contained weighing system and method

A platform weighing system (10) suitable for making accurate weight measurements of heavy objects, such as aircraft, is disclosed. Hardware and software combine to produce the accurate results. Analog hardware (14) includes hydraulic load cells (80a-80d), temperature sensing (91), filtering (90), and voltage-to-frequency conversion (104). Digital hardware (12) receives an oscillation signal output from the voltage-to-frequency conversion (104) and obtains load counts by monitoring the oscillation signal for consistent predetermined durations. The predetermined duration is chosen in software (226) to be immune to particularly pervasive noise signals. A microprocessor (16) converts load counts into a weight code which is output to a display (46). This conversion includes compensation for auto ranging (320), load cell excitation variance (282), temperature compensation (284), null offset variance (286), and zero drifting (304). In addition, nonlinearities in load cell output are compensated by linearly interpolating (288-296) between two of a plurality of calibration points that characterize the load cells (80a-80d ). Such compensations are performed primarily in software (200).

Highly accurate platform weighing system

Growing community of inventors

Arlington, TX, United States of America

Dick E Davis