A method of determining the position of one or more components of a landing gear assembly of an aircraft is disclosed including scanning the one or more components with a lidar system to generate a set of position data points, each position data point comprising a set of three orthogonal position values. The position data points are partitioned into one or more clusters using a distance metric. Each cluster is determined to represent a component of the landing gear assembly. The position of the components are then determined from the position data points in the clusters. The value of the distance metric for a first position data point and a second position data point is representative of the difference between a first position value of the three orthogonal position values of the first position data point and the corresponding first position value of the three orthogonal position values of the second position data point.

A method of determining the steering angle of a landing gear assembly of an aircraft is disclosed including scanning the landing gear assembly with a lidar system to generate a set of three-dimensional position data points, each position data point including a set of three orthogonal position values. A two-dimensional image from the set of three-dimensional position data points, by converting a position value of each of the three-dimensional position data points to an image property value of a set of image property values. A boundary of an area of the two-dimensional image of which each position data point has the same image property value is identified, where the area corresponds to a component of the landing gear assembly. The steering angle of the landing gear assembly is then determined from the shape and/or orientation of the identified boundary.

A system for an aircraft comprising a controller configured to obtain a first piece of information regarding whether the aircraft has achieved lift-off; to obtain a second piece of information regarding whether the aircraft is in a flight phase in an initial part of lift-off; to determine, on the basis of at least the first piece of information whether the gear is retractable, and, if the gear is retractable in an initial part of the lift-off, to trigger a landing-gear-retraction alarm taking an audio form and/or a visual form, and, if the gear is retractable after the initial part of the lift-off to optionally trigger a second landing-gear-retraction alarm taking an audio form and/or a visual form. A method implemented by the system is provided. Advantageously, an omission of the retraction of the landing gear of an aircraft is notified to its flight crew.

A system for an aircraft comprising a controller configured to obtain a first piece of information regarding whether the aircraft has achieved lift-off; to obtain a second piece of information regarding whether the aircraft is in a flight phase in an initial part of lift-off; to determine, on the basis of at least the first piece of information whether the gear is retractable, and, if the gear is retractable in an initial part of the lift-off, to trigger a landing-gear-retraction alarm taking an audio form and/or a visual form, and, if the gear is retractable after the initial part of the lift-off to optionally trigger a second landing-gear-retraction alarm taking an audio form and/or a visual form. A method implemented by the system is provided. Advantageously, an omission of the retraction of the landing gear of an aircraft is notified to its flight crew.

An aircraft system for an aircraft, the aircraft system including a controller configured, during a take-off procedure, to receive a first signal indicative of a climb rate of the aircraft and, when the controller determines, on the basis of the first signal, that the climb rate of the aircraft is positive, cause a retraction alert to be issued to a flight crew of the aircraft, the retraction alert indicative that a landing gear of the aircraft is retractable.

An aircraft system for an aircraft, the aircraft system including a controller configured, during a take-off procedure, to receive a first signal indicative of a climb rate of the aircraft and, when the controller determines, on the basis of the first signal, that the climb rate of the aircraft is positive, cause a retraction alert to be issued to a flight crew of the aircraft, the retraction alert indicative that a landing gear of the aircraft is retractable.

Apparatus to monitor the position of an aircraft landing gear.

Apparatus to monitor the position of an aircraft landing gear.

An aircraft controller configured to determine a period and/or distance over which deployment of a landing gear can be initiated for landing including a determined first portion during which landing gear deployment can be safely initiated and a determined second portion, closer to aircraft landing than the first portion, during which the landing gear deployment can be safely initiated in an efficient landing mode; issue a first pilot feedback when the first portion is entered by the aircraft; issue a second pilot feedback when the second portion of the determined; and initiate landing gear deployment when the aircraft is in the determined period and/or distance in response to receiving a deployment signal from the pilot.

An aircraft controller configured to determine a period and/or distance over which deployment of a landing gear can be initiated for landing including a determined first portion during which landing gear deployment can be safely initiated and a determined second portion, closer to aircraft landing than the first portion, during which the landing gear deployment can be safely initiated in an efficient landing mode; issue a first pilot feedback when the first portion is entered by the aircraft; issue a second pilot feedback when the second portion of the determined; and initiate landing gear deployment when the aircraft is in the determined period and/or distance in response to receiving a deployment signal from the pilot.