Gerald J Brown

US Patent:

63111071, Oct 30, 2001

Filed:

Jun 23, 2000

Appl. No.:

9/606102

Inventors:

Paul A. Curto - Potomac MD
Gerald E. Brown - McLean VA
Jan A. Zysko - Merritt Island FL

Assignee:

The United States of America as represented by the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration - Washington DC

International Classification:

G06F 1900

US Classification:

701 14

Abstract:

The present invention is a two-part wind advisory system comprising a ground station at an airfield and an airborne unit placed inside an aircraft. The ground station monitors wind conditions (wind speed, wind direction, and wind gust) at the airfield and transmits the wind conditions and an airfield ID to the airborne unit. The airborne unit identifies the airfield by comparing the received airfield ID with airfield IDs stored in a database. The airborne unit also calculates the headwind and crosswind for each runway in both directions at the airfield using the received wind conditions and runway information stored in the database. The airborne unit then determines a recommended runway for takeoff and landing operations of the aircraft based on the runway having the greatest headwind value and displays the airfield ID, wind conditions, and recommended runway to the pilot. Another embodiment of the present invention includes a wireless internet based airborne unit in which the airborne unit can receive the wind conditions from the ground station over the internet.