A method includes detecting, by a processing circuit, a high-speed rejected takeoff has occurred by determining an aircraft has accelerated to at least a first preset indicated airspeed value and then by determining the aircraft has decelerated below at least a second preset indicated airspeed value and the aircraft is on the ground. The method also includes detecting, by the processing circuit, an event other than the high-speed rejected takeoff has occurred by determining the aircraft has not accelerated to at least the first preset indicated airspeed value, or by determining the aircraft has accelerated to at least the first preset indicated airspeed value and the aircraft has not decelerated below at least the second preset indicated airspeed value, or by determining the aircraft is airborne.

The present disclosure describes autonomous flight safety systems (AFSSs) that incorporate an autonomous flight termination unit (AFTU) enabling AFSS monitoring for various termination conditions that are used to activate a flight termination system (e.g., in the event a termination condition is detected). Such termination conditions include boundary limit detection (e.g., whether a vehicle position is outside or projected outside a planned flight envelope), as well as body instability detection (e.g., whether a pitch rate and yaw rate exceed some threshold indicative of vehicle instability). For instance, an AFTU may incorporate a three-axis gyroscope sensor and may implement instability detection processing based on information obtained via the sensor. Instability detection processing may include, for example, a BID algorithm that may be implemented by an AFTU to monitor angular rates of the vehicle, to determine if the vehicle is no longer under stable control, and to issue termination commands when termination conditions are detected.

A system for detecting airborne objects within a shared field of view includes a first transceiver and a second transceiver. The first transceiver is positioned in a first discrete location and has a first field of view that represents a detection area of the first transceiver and the second transceiver is positioned in a second discrete location and has a second field of view that represents the detection area of the second field of view. The first field of view and the second field of view intersect one another to create the shared field of view. Both the first transceiver and the second transceiver are configured to emit an array of signals towards the shared field of view. Each signal of the array of signals includes a unique signature including information for determining an actual distance between either the first transceiver or the second transceiver and the airborne object.

A method is provided for supporting operations of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) on a flight in an airspace system. The method includes receiving instructions that describe a cleared path the UAV is authorized by an air navigation service provider (ANSP) to travel through the airspace system. The method includes determining guidance modes of the UAV based on the instructions, and engaging the guidance modes in which the UAV is caused to perform the procedures to carry out the flight. The guidance modes indicate procedures of the UAV, the guidance modes including lateral flight modes and vertical flight modes, that are subject to rules defined by the ANSP for travel through the airspace system under instrument flight rules (IFR), and the lateral flight modes and the vertical flight modes are separate and independent from one another.

Improved mechanisms for collecting information from a diverse suite of sensors and systems, calculating the current precipitation, atmospheric water vapor, atmospheric liquid water content, or precipitable water and other atmospheric-based phenomena, for example presence and intensity of fog, based upon these sensor readings, predicting future precipitation and atmospheric-based phenomena, and estimating effects of the atmospheric-based phenomena on visibility, for example by calculating runway visible range (RVR) estimates and forecasts based on the atmospheric-based phenomena.

A method for monitoring the take-off and/or landing procedure of an aircraft (1), in particular for an electrical, vertical take-off and landing aircraft (1), in which a monitoring region of a take-off and landing site (2) is monitored by at least one microphone (4, 5) of a monitoring station to detect sound emission data of an aircraft (1) taking off or landing as it approaches or departs and the detected sound emission data are transmitted from the monitoring station to an evaluation unit. The detected sound emission data are evaluated by the evaluation unit by comparing the detected sound emission data to characteristic sound emission data.

Systems and methods for suggesting, on an avionic display in an aircraft, a communication frequency that is relevant to a context of the aircraft. The method includes determining a location and orientation of the aircraft and referencing an intended flight path to determine, based thereon, the context of the aircraft. The method uses the context to reference an on-board source of a plurality of stored navigation communication frequencies. The method identifies one or more relevant navigation communication frequencies for the context and presents the relevant navigation communication frequencies in a predefined area on an avionic display.

Runway awareness and advisory systems (RAAS) and methods are provided for an aircraft. A variety of alerts can be provided based on integrating FMS data with the RAAS systems.

An aircraft has a first principles takeoff processor (PCE), a predictive flight envelope protection processor (PFEP), and a maximum takeoff weight processor. The PCE is programmed to predict a liftoff location and an energy state of the aircraft at a liftoff on a runway. The PFEP is programmed to assess each of a plurality of potential trajectories for compliance with or violation of a predetermined flight envelope. The maximum weight processor is programmed to: indicate that the aircraft may takeoff at the aircraft weight when any one of the plurality of potential trajectories is in compliance with the predetermined flight envelope; iteratively reduce an input of the aircraft weight to the PCE until the PCE indicates that any one of the plurality of potential trajectories is in compliance with the predetermined flight envelope; and indicate that the input of the aircraft weight as reduced is a maximum allowable takeoff weight.

A tree structure represents a terrain area as nested polygons organized in a parent-child relationship, each polygon associated to a specific geographic location. The tree structure defines at least one parent node and a plurality of child nodes, some being leaf nodes containing a height value. A processor uses a distance measure to change the tree structure topology assessing whether all leaf node children of a first parent node lie outside a predetermined distance from an aircraft runway, and if so, converting the first parent node into a leaf node by storing in the first parent node a height value representing the greatest of the respective height values of the leaf node children and by removing the leaf node children; and iteratively repeating for each remaining parent node until it has been determined that every remaining parent node in the data structure cannot be pruned without violating accuracy requirements.