A method of determining whether a landing event of an aircraft is hard may comprise: receiving, by a controller via a stroke position sensor, a stroke profile as a function of time for a shock strut; receiving, by the controller via a gas pressure sensor, a gas pressure in a gas chamber of the shock strut; receiving, by the controller via a wheel speed sensor, a wheel speed of a tire in a landing gear assembly; calculating, by the controller, multiple time dependent functions based on the stroke profile of the shock strut, based on the gas pressure, a shock strut temperature, and the wheel speed; and comparing, by the controller, the multiple time dependent functions to respective predetermined thresholds to determine whether the landing event is hard.

The present invention relates to the field of unmanned aerial vehicle safety protection technologies, and in particular, to an unmanned aerial vehicle safety protection method and apparatus and an unmanned aerial vehicle. The method includes: obtaining ultrasonic information and a flight status of an unmanned aerial vehicle, where the flight status includes a normal flight state and a descending state; and performing safety protection on the unmanned aerial vehicle according to the ultrasonic information and the flight status. The implementation can reduce an occurrence probability that an unmanned aerial vehicle crashes at a high altitude when ultrasound encounters abnormalities to get out of control at the high altitude and fail to descend, rise, move to the left or move to the right and land without slowing down to violently hit the ground, so that the safety of the unmanned aerial vehicle is enhanced, and user experience is improved.

Provided is a method of predicting an unsafe approach during an approach phase of a flight. The method includes: receiving static flight metadata related to the flight from an external server; extracting a flight data recorder (FDR) data set of the aircraft for a safe approach to a destination of the aircraft from history data of flights of the aircraft to the destination stored in advance; selecting parameters related to unsafe approaches based on the static flight metadata and the FDR data set; extracting time series data for the FDR data set taking into account the parameters related to the unsafe approaches; selecting an event variable to be used for an unsafe approach determination based on the time series data; generating final prediction data by weighting the time series data for the event variable; and determining whether an unsafe approach is predicted or not based on the final prediction data.

An electronic flight assistant device has a first processor coupled to a firmware memory containing machine readable instructions executable by the processor (Firmware) and a random access (RAM) memory; an electronic camera coupled to the processor; a visible-wavelength laser adapted to be gated and scanned by the processor; a switchable cockpit light; at least one digital radio coupled to the processor; and a housing containing the processor, electronic camera, laser, digital radio, and cockpit light; the firmware configured to perform optical reading of cockpit instruments, to determine error conditions, and to scan the laser to provide indications to a pilot of error conditions.

A shock absorber for an aircraft landing gear is disclosed. The shock absorber includes a stop surface arranged to limit extension of the shock absorber and a crumple element configured to deform in the event that the extension load on the stop surface exceeds a predetermined threshold. The crumple element may form part of the out-stop tube of the shock absorber. Deformation of the crumple element may be identified by measuring the length of the fully extending landing gear, through non-destructive testing or by measuring the change in conductance of the crumple element.

Disclosed embodiments include a blown flying wing tailsitter aircraft leveraging distributed electric propulsion to enable a combination of exceptional aerodynamic performance and high bandwidth control in both vertical (hovering) and horizontal flight. A pilot in one disclosed embodiment may be in the prone position during cruise and standing during vertical flight phase to enable greater aerodynamic efficiency with minimal engineering complexity and a small landing footprint. Batteries may be disposed in a high-volume wing sealed off from the piloted compartment to increase the safety of the pilot while distributing the inertial load of batteries and motors across the wingspan, thus enabling a lighter and simpler structure. Propellers may be above head-level for operational safety when the aircraft is standing on the ground.

Disclosed embodiments include a blown flying wing tailsitter aircraft leveraging distributed electric propulsion to enable a combination of exceptional aerodynamic performance and high bandwidth control in both vertical (hovering) and horizontal flight. A pilot in one disclosed embodiment may be in the prone position during cruise and standing during vertical flight phase to enable greater aerodynamic efficiency with minimal engineering complexity and a small landing footprint. Batteries may be disposed in a high-volume wing sealed off from the piloted compartment to increase the safety of the pilot while distributing the inertial load of batteries and motors across the wingspan, thus enabling a lighter and simpler structure. Propellers may be above head-level for operational safety when the aircraft is standing on the ground.

An aircraft tail skid energy absorption indicator including a crushable indicator cartridge disposed within the an outer shock absorber canister of the aircraft tail skid, and an indicator rod coupled to the crushable indicator cartridge so as to move with a portion of the crushable indicator cartridge as a unit, where the indicator rod extends through an aperture in a wall of the outer shock absorber canister, where the indicator rod includes at least one graduation that indicates an amount of remaining energy absorption of the aircraft tail skid energy absorption indicator.

Methods and apparatus are provided for generating a runway landing alert for an aircraft. The method comprises establishing an altitude parameter and a safety envelope for a designated target runway of the aircraft. A track of the aircraft is monitored with reference to a centerline of the target runway. Any deviation by the aircraft from the centerline of the target runway is detected and determined if it is within a margin of error. If the deviation is within the margin of error, an altitude parameter is increased. If the aircraft is determined to still be maneuvering with respect to the centerline of the target runway, the altitude parameter is decreased. Otherwise, an alert is generated if the aircraft is outside of the safety envelope.

An apparatus for monitoring a tire and/or a wheel including a sensor system; a wireless communication interface; a processor connected to the sensor system and the wireless communication interface; a power source; and a mounting system for attaching the apparatus to a wheel. The mounting system is configured to allow movement of the sensor system relative to the wheel in use.