Eric J Rach

20020122001, Sep 5, 2002

Mar 2, 2001

09/798439

Thomas Bachinski - Lakeville MN, US
Steve Alwin - Saint Paul MN, US
Eric Rach - Burnsville MN, US

G01S005/14

342/357060

A smart probe assembly for an aircraft includes pressure sensing ports for sensing pressures indicating angle of attack, static pressure and pitot pressure, a circuit housing mounted on said probe includes cards for a central processing unit, and also includes a global positioning satellite receiver. An antennae for the global positioning satellite receiver is mounted adjacent to the probe, on a mounting plate so that the antennae is protruding from the aircraft without cutting an additional hole in the aircraft skin, the inputs from the global positioning satellite are used for providing various flight performance information.

20020072832, Jun 13, 2002

Dec 11, 2000

09/734363

Thomas Bachinski - Lakeville MN, US
Eric Rach - Burnsville MN, US
Ben Ping-Tao Fok - Apple Valley MN, US

G05D001/00

701/004000, 342/038000, 340/967000

A system for determining an altitude of an aircraft using barometric pressure measurements is disclosed comprising: a transmitter disposed at a ground station for transmitting a signal to the aircraft, which signal including first data representative of barometric pressure at the ground station; a receiver disposed at the aircraft for receiving the transmitted signal; sensing apparatus disposed at the aircraft for measuring barometric pressure at the altitude of the aircraft and generating second data representative thereof; and processing circuitry for determining the altitude of the aircraft based on the first and second data and data representative of the elevation of the ground station. The ground station includes sensing apparatus for measuring barometric pressure at the ground station and generating pressure data representative thereof which is superimposed onto a carrier signal of the transmitter for transmission to the aircraft. Also disclosed is a method of determining an altitude of an aircraft using barometric pressure measurements, the method comprising the steps of: transmitting a signal from a ground station to the aircraft, the signal including first data representative of barometric pressure at the ground station; receiving the transmitted signal at the aircraft; measuring barometric pressure at the altitude of the aircraft and generating second data representative thereof; and determining the altitude of the aircraft based on the first and second data and data representative of the elevation of the ground station. The method may further include the steps of determining a position of the aircraft and generating a position signal representative thereof; storing data representative of elevations of the terrain under a flight path of the aircraft; accessing the stored terrain elevation data based on the position signal; and determining aircraft AGL at an aircraft position based on the determined altitude and the accessed terrain elevation data at the aircraft position.