A system for exploiting a transmitted signal from an aircraft or drone to determine parameters of the aircraft or drone's motion. The system includes at least one antenna for receiving the transmitted signal from the aircraft, and an analysis system for analyzing the transmitted signal as compared with stored characteristic anomalies associated with any of the aircraft or drone, and the at least one antenna, for confirming parameters of the aircraft or drone's motion.

An aerial repeater position determination apparatus is proposed. The apparatus may include a transceiver configured to acquire a height of an aerial repeater, a position of a source node, and a position of a mobile communication base station. The apparatus may also include an initial position determination processor configured to determine an initial position by checking a position at which a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of a signal received by the mobile communication base station is maximized on a first plane parallel to the ground and including the aerial repeater, on the basis of the position of the source node, the position of the mobile communication base station, and the height of the aerial repeater.

Accessory port systems and methods are provided. In one example, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) includes an accessory port configured to interchangeably attach a plurality of accessory devices to the UAV. The accessory port may have a mechanical interface configured to engage with one of the accessory devices. The mechanical interface may include a locking member configured to physically secure the accessory device to the accessory port. The accessory port may further include an electrical interface configured to electrically connect the accessory device to the UAV. The mechanical interface may be configured to align the accessory device relative to the electrical interface. Related devices, systems, and methods are also provided.

An aggregation router for an aircraft may include processing circuitry. The processing circuitry may be configured to receive a first channel from a first airborne radio, and receive a second channel from a second airborne radio. The first and second channels may be WAN connections to wireless communication network resources on the ground. The processing circuitry may be further configured to aggregate the first and second channels for service to LAN connections on the aircraft, which LAN connections may include one or more short range wireless communication access points.

A method for enabling autonomous emergency assistance for one or more communication device, CD, registered in a regular cellular network. The method is performed in an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, and comprises emulating a cellular network in a geographical region, wherein the UAV and the one or more CD are without connectivity with the regular cellular network, sending an information message in the geographical region, the message comprising an emergency response trigger, receiving an automatic emergency data response from the one or more CD in the geographical region, in response to the sent message, and determining an action based on the received automatic emergency data response. A CD, a UAV, a computer program and a computer program product are also presented.

Presented herein are systems and methods for operating a flight plan based distributed ledger system implemented on an aviation communications network. According to an aspect, data associated with communication transmissions occurring between communications elements of the aviation communications network may be recorded on the distributed ledger system. The communications elements involved in the distributed ledger system may be determined using a received flight plan. The flight plan information may be used to initialize the ledger information at each communications element involved in the distributed ledger system. The distributed ledger system may be updated to add or remove communications elements if the flight deviates from the original flight plan. After the flight plan is executed, the distributed ledger system may inactivate the ledger and store the ledger information in a centralized repository.

Systems, methods, and apparatuses for a virtual transponder utilizing inband telemetry are disclosed. A disclosed method for a virtual transponder utilizing inband telemetry comprises receiving, by a vehicle, encrypted host commands from a host spacecraft operations center (SOC). The method further comprises receiving, by the vehicle via the host SOC, encrypted hosted commands from a hosted payload (HoP) operation center (HOC). Also, the method comprises reconfiguring a payload on the vehicle according to unencrypted host commands and/or unencrypted hosted commands. In addition, the method comprises transmitting payload data to a host receiving antenna and/or a hosted receiving antenna. In addition, the method comprises transmitting, by a host telemetry transmitter on the vehicle, encrypted host telemetry to the host SOC. Further, the method comprises transmitting, by the payload antenna, encrypted hosted telemetry to the HOC.

A method performed by a node in a wireless communication networks. The method comprises obtaining measurement data for one or more measurements performed, by a wireless device in the wireless communication network, on at least one first radio signal transmitted by one or more base stations in the wireless communication network. The method further comprises determining whether or not the wireless device is airborne by inputting the measurement data to a model developed using a machine learning algorithm.

There is disclosed a flight control system, the flight control system including a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) and a ground-based control centre, wherein the RPA and the ground-based control centre are configured to communicate using a plurality of different communication systems, wherein the RPA includes a computer system configured to determine operation risk, wherein the computer system receives input from the ground-based control centre for use in the determination of operation risk, wherein the computer system is configured to select a communication system from the plurality of different communication systems, and to use the selected communication system for communication between the RPA and the ground-based control centre, based on the determined operation risk.

In order for a mobile terminal to land at an appropriate landing point in reaction to a change of an incident that may occur while the mobile terminal flies along a flight path, a control apparatus 100 includes: an information acquisition section 131 configured to acquire, according to a flight of a first mobile terminal (mobile terminal 200a) performed based on a flight path to a first landing point, information on one or more second landing points associated with the flight path to the first landing point; and a first communication processing section 133 configured to transmit the information on the one or more second landing points to the first mobile terminal (mobile terminal 200a) via a mobile communication network 300.