The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 22, 1989
Filed:
May. 17, 1988
George Gal, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Howard E Morrow, San Jose, CA (US);
Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
An aircraft velocimeter comprises means for projecting three pairs of independently generated ribbon-shaped laser beams to a measurement volume located at a predetermined distance from the aircraft with a predetermined separation being maintained between the two ribbon-shaped laser beams of each pair at the measurement volume. The times of flight of atmospheric aerosol particles between the two ribbon-shaped laser beams of corresponding pairs of laser beams are measured as the aerosol particles pass through the measurement volume. From the predetermined distance between the two ribbon-shaped laser beams of each pair and the measured time of flight of an aerosol particle across that predetermined distance, a component of velocity of the aerosol particle relative to the aircraft is calculated for each pair of ribbon-shaped laser beams. From the three components of velocity corresponding to the three pairs of ribbon-shaped laser beams projected to the measurement volume, a vector measurement of the velocity of the aircraft relative to atmospheric particles in the surrounding atmosphere is obtained using an on-board computer programmed with a conventional algorithm.