Honeywell International Inc.

Mark T Manfred

Thomas A Ryno

Anthony Vernon Brama

Lawrence C Vallot

Randolph G Hartman

James E Lenz

Kevin D Vanderwerf

Mark E Wright

Curtis J Call

Tom Ryno

Lucius Orville Taylor, Jr

Lucius Orville Taylor Jr

Systems and methods for providing aircraft heading information are provided. In one embodiment, an attitude heading reference device comprises: at least one interface for receiving heading information from one or more IRUs; at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers; a memory device for storing data representing heading information received via the at least one interface; and a heading calculator coupled to the at least one interface, the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers, and the memory device. The heading calculator generating a heading output signal based on heading information when reliable heading information is received over the at least one interface; the heading calculator generating the heading output signal based on data from the memory device regarding previously reliable heading information and an output of the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers when reliable heading information is not received over the at least one interface.

Systems and methods for providing aircraft heading information

An aircraft inertial system comprises at least two inertial reference units (IRU) that provide a first set of inertial signal data for an aircraft and at least two attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) that provide a second set of the inertial signal data for the aircraft. At least one primary flight display receives the first and the second sets of the inertial signal data, and a standby flight display receives at least the second set of the inertial signal data from at least one of the AHRS. When a single fault condition occurs, the primary flight display continues to operate with fail-operational redundancy from at least three independent sources of the inertial signal data comprising one or more IRU and AHRS combinations. The standby flight display will operate using a different source of the inertial signal data than the source of the inertial signal data for the primary flight display.

Systems and methods of redundancy for aircraft inertial signal data

A flight control system is provided that includes a reference system and flight control actuators. The reference system includes one or more sets of gyroscopes and accelerometers. At least one set of the gyroscopes and accelerometers are configured to provide a first output of a first set inertial signals for normal mode flight control and second output of a second different set of inertial signals for backup mode flight control. The flight control actuators are configured to be controlled by one of the first set of inertial signals and the second set of inertial signals.

Inertial signals for flight control backup mode

A method for characterizing distortions in the earth's magnetic field caused by a vehicle having a magnetometer affixed therein is described. The method includes repeatedly measuring the distorted magnetic field utilizing the magnetometer and obtaining a three-dimensional orientation of the vehicle axes with respect to the earth at a time of each magnetometer measurement. The method also includes receiving undistorted earth magnetic field data for the vicinity of the vehicle relative to the earth at the time of each magnetometer measurement and characterizing distortions caused by one or more of the vehicle and magnetometer errors utilizing the magnetic field measurements, the orientations of the vehicle, and the undistorted earth magnetic field data.

Methods and apparatus for automatic magnetic compensation

An altitude measuring system is described that includes a radar altimeter configured to measure altitude and a digital terrain map database. The database includes data relating to terrain elevation and at least one data parameter relating to an accuracy of the terrain elevation data and the altitude measured by the radar altimeter. The system is configured to weigh an altitude derived from the terrain elevation data and the radar altimeter measurements according to the at least one data parameter.

Methods and systems for measuring terrain height

A weather monitoring and prediction system that uses a fleet of aircraft to obtain data. Each aircraft has a local air data system that facilitates the measurement, recordation, and transmittal of local atmospheric data such as barometric pressure, and the corresponding temporal, positional, and altitudinal data. The data is electronically transmitted from each aircraft to a ground based processing system where it is stored. The data may then be transmitted to subscribing users such as aircraft, other weather data systems or to air traffic control centers in either a compiled form or in a raw form. Another embodiment also provides for measuring barometric pressure as a function of altitude at an in-flight aircraft.

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Edina, MN, United States of America

Mark T Manfred