Claims
- 1. A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:
a ground data link unit contained within an aircraft for obtaining flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising:
a) a data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of the aircraft, and b) a spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said data store and operative to download to a ground based spread spectrum transceiver flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said data store during flight over a spread spectrum communication signal and upload data from said ground based spread spectrum transceiver; and a wireless unit in communication with the ground data link unit and communicating data with said ground data link unit.
- 2. A system according to claim 1, wherein said wireless unit comprises a hand-held unit.
- 3. A system according to claim 1, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum communication signal.
- 4. A system according to claim 1, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a frequency hopping spread spectrum communication signal.
- 5. A system for providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising:
a ground data link unit contained within a aircraft for obtaining flight performance data representative of aircraft flight performance during flight of the aircraft, said ground data link unit comprising:
a) a data store operative to accumulate and store flight performance data during flight of the aircraft, and b) a spread spectrum transceiver coupled to said data store and operative to download to a ground based spread spectrum transceiver flight performance data that has been accumulated and stored by said data store during flight over a spread spectrum communication signal and upload data from said ground based spread spectrum transceiver; and a hand-held wireless unit contained within the aircraft and communicating via said ground data link unit.
- 6. A system according to claim 5, wherein said wireless unit is operative to maintain inventory control of selected aircraft contents.
- 7. A system according to claim 5, wherein said wireless unit is operative to maintain passenger data.
- 8. A system according to claim 5, wherein said wireless unit is operative to maintain data relating aircraft departure and arrival times.
- 9. A system according to claim 5, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum communication signal.
- 10. A system according to claim 5, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a frequency hopping spread spectrum communication signal.
- 11. A system according to claim 5, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a chirp modulated signal.
- 12. A system according to claim 5, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a communication signal that has been modulated with a forward error correction.
- 13. A system according to claim 5, wherein said spread spectrum communication signal comprises a communication signal that is within 900 MHZ, 2.4 GHz, and 5.0 GHz spread spectrum communication bands.
- 14. A method of providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising the steps of:
acquiring flight performance data of an aircraft during flight of the aircraft; accumulating and storing within a memory of a ground data link unit the flight performance data during flight of the aircraft; and communicating with the ground data link unit via a wireless unit.
- 15. A method according to claim 14, wherein the wireless unit comprises a hand-held unit.
- 16. A method according to claim 14, wherein the spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum communication signal.
- 17. A method according to claim 14, wherein the spread spectrum communication signal comprises a frequency hopping spread communication signal.
- 18. A method of providing a retrievable record of the flight performance of an aircraft comprising the steps of:
acquiring flight performance data of an aircraft during flight of the aircraft; accumulating and storing within a memory of a ground data link unit the flight performance data during flight of the aircraft; and communicating with the ground data link unit via a hand-held unit that is positioned within the aircraft.
- 19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the wireless unit maintains inventory control of selected aircraft contents.
- 20. A method according to claim 18, wherein the wireless unit maintains passenger data.
- 21. A method according to claim 18, wherein the wireless unit maintains data relating to aircraft departure and arrival times.
- 22. A method according to claim 18, wherein the spread spectrum communication signal comprises a direct sequence spread spectrum communication signal.
- 23. A method according to claim 18, wherein the spread spectrum communication signal comprises a frequency hopping spread communication signal.
- 24. A method according to claim 18, and further comprising the step of uploading web based Internet files.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application of Ser. No. 09/474,894, filed Jun. 2, 1999, which is a continuation application of Ser. No. 08/557,269, filed Nov. 14, 1995, now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,047,165.
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09723340 |
Nov 2000 |
US |
Child |
10338426 |
Jan 2003 |
US |
Parent |
08557269 |
Nov 1995 |
US |
Child |
09474894 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09474894 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Child |
09723340 |
Nov 2000 |
US |