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:
Apr. 03, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 01, 1998
Gerald J. Stiles, El Segundo, CA (US);
TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
A passive millimeter-wave imaging system (,) that includes a millimeter-wave camera (,) positioned at the end of an aircraft landing strip (,) to provide an image (,) of the aircraft (,) approaching the landing strip (,) along a landing glidepath (,). The camera (,) broadcasts the image (,) of the aircraft (,) approaching the landing strip (,) to the aircraft (,) and to a control tower (,). With this information, the pilot of the aircraft (,) sees his aircraft's position relative to the glidepath (,), and can make landing adjustments accordingly. Likewise, the tower personnel can monitor the aircraft landing glidepath (,) to insure that the aircraft (,) maintain a safe distance relative to the ground. In one embodiment, a closed-loop communication is provided between the aircraft (,) and the camera (,), where the aircraft (,) transmits a signal to the camera (,) that is combined with the image (,) to give the pilot an indication of which aircraft (,) in the image (,) is his aircraft (,). The coded signal transmitted by the aircraft (,) can also be used to give a range of the aircraft (,) from the landing strip (,).