Aviation Communication and Surveillance Systems, LLC

Stayton, Greg T.

Troxel, James R.

Kathryn W Ybarra

James Roy Troxel

Greg T Stayton

Cyro Allen Stone

Zachary R Reynolds

Tom V Eich

David J Johnson

A system for enhancing flight safety of a host aircraft receives an adjustment value from a portable memory device; determines a working value of a parameter in accordance with the adjustment value; and provides an advice for threat avoidance in accordance with the working value of the parameter, a terrain database, and an expected climb gradient capability of the host aircraft. The adjustment value may describe an adjustment to at least one of: an aircraft capability parameter, a flight crew capability parameter, a mission parameter, a threat detection technique parameter, a threat advice parameter, or a threat avoidance parameter. Threats include a risk of colliding with other aircraft, colliding with terrain, and encountering adverse weather conditions.

Threat avoidance system and methods using adjustments to built-in values

A system for transmitting into a shared medium includes a processor, a transmitter, and a receiver. The processor is coupled to the transmitter for transmitting in a manner, at a time, and at a power level as directed by the processor. The processor determines from cooperation with the receiver the number of transmitters expected to be sharing the medium at a future time when transmitting is desired; prescribes a total power for a plurality of transmissions; and prescribes a maximum power for individual transmissions of various types. As implemented for air traffic collision avoidance, a suitable total power for MODE S interrogations transmitted by a TCAS unit on the host aircraft and a suitable power level for individual interrogation transmissions are set according to the detected number of operational TCAS in the airspace, the detected or reported number of members in a flight formation that includes the host aircraft, the altitude of the host aircraft, and the distances from the host aircraft to other members of the flight formation. Other implementations adjust receiver sensitivity, for example, increasing the minimum trigger level (MTL) for detecting interrogations and squitters. With decreased receiver sensitivity, continued use of limited transmission power levels improves system reliability and decreases interference of TCAS with other systems such as ATCRBS. Further implementations revise conventional TCAS interference limiting techniques. Transmission of broadcast messages may be conducted at reduced power or omitted.

Systems and methods for managing transmission power into a shared medium

A display system is disclosed for displaying air traffic symbology from a plurality of different types of air traffic surveillance systems on a single monitor. A display device includes a processor for generating display symbology from TCAS, SKE and ADS-B information, and a monitor for displaying the generated symbology in a uniform format.

Formation surveillance and collision avoidance

A traffic collision avoidance system has a transponder with an interrogation monitoring engine for receiving interrogations and an interrogation response engine for inhibiting responses to the interrogations if the interrogations are air traffic control interrogations and the transponder is in a quiet mode. Typically the transponder enters quiet mode during military formation flight if the aircraft in which the transponder is installed is not a tail or lead member of the formation.

System and method for inhibiting transponder replies

A surveillance and collision avoidance system provides a presentation of situational awareness information for display that includes a compound symbol for each target spaced at a distance and bearing relative to a host symbol. The target compound symbol includes indicia of (a) whether the target is airborne or on the ground; (b) whether the target is a civil aircraft, a military aircraft identified as a formation member with the host aircraft, or a military aircraft not identified as a formation member with the host aircraft; (c) whether a ground track for the target is unknown, known by passive surveillance, or known by active surveillance; (d) for civil aircraft, whether the target is the subject of no advisory, a traffic advisory, or a resolution advisory; and (e) for a military aircraft, whether the target is the subject of no encroachment advisory, an unintended encroachment advisory, or an intended encroachment advisory. Subsystems selectively use an active or a passive mode of surveillance. In a passive mode, surveillance may rely on information received via a network among formation members and/or unsolicited received signals.

Surveillance and collision avoidance system with compound symbols

Integrated surveillance display

A formation collision avoidance system includes a Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) having a passive mode and an active mode. The passive mode enables several members of an aircraft formation to fly without actively interrogating using TCAS while only one or few formation members are actively interrogating. Formation members in passive mode maintain awareness of current air and ground traffic conditions using networked surveillance information provided over a communications link between formation members in active mode and formation members in passive mode. The networked surveillance information includes positional and intent information of current air/ground traffic obtained from ADS-B broadcasts and replies to the actively interrogating members of the formation. The communications link utilizes Station Keeping Equipment (SKE) already existing on certain aircraft.

An aircraft system and method for determining when to attempt acquisition of an intruder for active tracking. A link reliability score associated with the intruder is adjusted based upon the signal strength of transmissions, the frequency of the transmissions, and the number of previous attempts to acquire the intruder for active tracking.

Growing community of inventors

Surprise, AZ, United States of America

Kathryn W Ybarra