The method S200 can include: at an aircraft, receiving an audio utterance from air traffic control S210, converting the audio utterance to text, determining commands from the text using a question-and-answer model S240, and optionally controlling the aircraft based on the commands S250. The method functions to automatically interpret flight commands from the air traffic control (ATC) stream.

A method and system for monitoring a safety level of a trajectory followed by a flying aircraft. The system selects, from among a set of integration points, the integration point at the position farthest from the current position of the aircraft on the trajectory. The system checks whether part of the trajectory extending from the current position of the aircraft to the position of the selected integration point is safe if no conflict is detected, and a contingency trajectory exists. These steps are repeated for each integration point, one step at a time until a safe trajectory is found. This results in a safety level dependent on the integration point from which the trajectory is considered to be safe. It is possible to anticipate any conflicts and, if necessary, to seamlessly carry out operations for diverting the aircraft.

Flight planning and/or optimizing flight plans can be performed using ground-based systems with little or no instrumented data, providing efficient communications between aircraft and ground-based systems. Estimates of airspeeds (i.e., derived airspeed) can be derived from transponder telemetry, which is optionally collected independently of flight planning. Alternative (adjusted or revised or modified) flight plans can be generated based on derived airspeed, weather, traffic, etc., and/or performance data specific to an individual aircraft. Aircraft performance models can be updated (e.g., fuel consumption) based on monitoring an aircraft over time. Winds aloft data can be updated based on monitoring of one or more aircraft. Data can be selectively identified and uplinked to aircraft based on certain criteria (e.g., data relevant to geographic areas and altitudes proximate flight path as indicated by flight plan).

An emergency detection and resolution system for alerting users of available options given a particular emergency (and set of flight conditions). The system may assist the pilot (crew) in resolving or reducing the urgency of an emergency or in executing a proposed solution to a given emergency, or may direct the aircraft autopilot in executing the suggested (and selected) solution. In either case, the system of the present invention provides the pilot with time to consider an emergency and its resolution (while the aircraft is directed toward a safe configuration or flight condition. The present invention may also ascertain the configuration of an aircraft from changes in the aircraft's position over time, or update an aircraft in preparation for a particular flight or flight condition.

An emergency detection and resolution system for alerting users of available options given a particular emergency (and set of flight conditions). The system may assist the pilot (crew) in resolving or reducing the urgency of an emergency or in executing a proposed solution to a given emergency, or may direct the aircraft autopilot in executing the suggested (and selected) solution. In either case, the system of the present invention provides the pilot with time to consider an emergency and its resolution (while the aircraft is directed toward a safe configuration or flight condition. The present invention may also ascertain the configuration of an aircraft from changes in the aircraft's position over time, or update an aircraft in preparation for a particular flight or flight condition.

An aircraft flight scheduling apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a database configured to manage an arrival time and a departure time for each aircraft at each airport, aircraft flight data including slot information assigned to each aircraft at each airport, a ground delay program (GDP) information issued by a control center of each airport, a scenario for an expected aircraft flight according to generation of the GDP, and an objective function for determining resetting of an aircraft flight schedule according to the generation of the GDP, a memory for storing an aircraft flight scheduling program, and a processor configured to execute the aircraft flight scheduling program.

A method of landing an aircraft in which the aircraft receives information from a second aircraft via a direct aircraft-to-aircraft communication from the second aircraft to the aircraft; determines a landing plan of the aircraft based on the information; and lands the aircraft based on the landing plan. The use of a direct aircraft-to-aircraft communication (i.e. a communication from the second aircraft to the first aircraft which does not travel via an intermediary such as a land station, air traffic controller or satellite) makes the method reliable because such a communication is inherently secure and difficult to hack.

Example embodiments are directed to systems and methods for providing cloud service to an onboard aerial vehicle system, A cloud service system accesses a flight related data. Using the flight related data, the cloud service system generates flight operations in a format of an avionics system on an aerial vehicle. A communication link is established over a communication network between the cloud service system and the aerial vehicle and the generated flight operations is transmitted to the aerial vehicle as digital data sent as data packets. The cloud service system then monitors, in real time, the aerial vehicle during a flight, wherein the monitoring comprises receiving and storing in-flight data from the aerial vehicle and the in-flight data is data reconstructed from a plurality of data packets received from the aerial vehicle. The cloud service system determines, based on the received in-flight data, whether to update the flight operations.

A method for protection of inflight aircraft during approaching-to-landing and takeoff/climbout phases of flight against handheld laser attacks includes two different drone types: a skeining drone and a swarming drone. One or more skeining drones are deployed close to the aircraft and/or one or more swarming drones are deployed further from the aircraft and closer to the beam source. Prior to the aircraft's traversal of a determinable approach point, a plurality of swarming drones are pre-deployed in loitering mode or else launched, and are subsequently directed toward the reckoned source of a trained beam while skeining drones are pre-deployed in a patrol mode or else launched, and fly closer to the aircraft. The skein classically shields the cockpit by flying a controlled interference pattern roughly parallel to the aircraft flightpath while the swarm saturates one or more determined and dynamically redetermined regions athwart the beam source location.

Methods, apparatus and systems for generating verifiable conflict-free flight plans for aircraft are disclosed. In an embodiment, a server computer receives a set of air traffic flight plans for an airspace that includes elements, and receives at least two of aerodynamic constraint data, business constraint data and operational constraint data for an aircraft. The server computer then generates using a first constraint satisfaction solver, a plurality of candidate flight plans for the aircraft based on the at least two of the aerodynamic constraint data, the business constraint data and the operational constraint data. The server computer next checks, utilizing a second constraint solver, for conflicts with the elements of the air traffic flight plans for the airspace, and provides at least one verifiable conflict-free flight plan for the aircraft from the plurality of candidate flight plans when a candidate flight plan is conflict-free from all of the elements of the set of air traffic flight plans.