MATTHEW TODD SMITH
Pilots at Alden Pl, Milford, CT

5465925, Nov 14, 1995

May 27, 1994

8/250988

Christopher J. Connolly - Stamford CT
Thomas H. Lawrence - Seymour CT
John J. Pawlowski - Shelton CT
Matthew T. Smith - Milford CT

United Technologies Corporation - Hartford CT

B64D 112

2441371

A helicopter external cargo suspension system (12) has load sensors (19,20) at each suspension point for sensing the magnitude of a load (32) at each suspension point. A delay period (FIG. 6) is determined based on the magnitude of the load, and a load is released if one of the following failure modes occurs for a period which exceed the delay period: one of the suspension points is unloaded, the magnitude of the load exceeds a maximum threshold magnitude, or if the distribution of the load, as indicated by the difference in magnitude at each suspension point, exceeds a difference threshold magnitude. If the magnitude of the load is below a minimum threshold magnitude, the load will be carried by one of the suspension points in response to a failure of the other suspension points. Alternatively, the load information is converted from crisp values to fuzzy inputs (700) wherein the detected values are fuzzified by assigning a membership weight at discrete points or segments on a normalized scale; a new mode fuzzy output (707) is provided by applying a compositional rule of inference (705) across each fuzzy input (702) and a composite mode selection rule base (710), the new mode fuzzy output (707) is converted into a crisp output by taking the weighted sum of the membership weight at each point on the normalized scale in excess of a threshold value (712), and new mode is determined by comparing the new mode crisp output to a set of new mode membership ranges (FIGS. 8e and 9e).