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. 26, 2011
Filed:
Jan. 24, 2006
Dale M. Pitt, St. Louis, MO (US);
Jason C. Kiiskila, St. Louis, MO (US);
Dale M. Pitt, St. Louis, MO (US);
Jason C. Kiiskila, St. Louis, MO (US);
The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A system for monitoring the free play in aircraft control surfaces includes one or more accelerometers secured in or on the aircraft control surfaces and a computer system connected to the one or more accelerometers and to one or more control surface actuators to selectively activated to selectively activate a control surface and send a reading from the control surface to the computer system. The computer system includes means to plot the readings from the one or more accelerometers on the control surfaces to plot a curve of the free play in the selected control surface. The method of the invention utilizes the one or more accelerometers placed in or on the aircraft control surfaces and connects them to the aircraft's flight control computer or a similar computer to receive signals originated by vibrating the control surfaces and plotting curves of the free play measured in the control surfaces.