Inventors:
Brian T. K. Nielsen - Seminole FL
Ronald M. Miller - Clearwater FL
Assignee:
Aerosonic Corporation - Clearwater FL
International Classification:
G01S 1308, G01S 740
Abstract:
An altimeter system for aircraft employs an aneroid, dash mounted altimeter having a needle coupled to an encoder. The encoder provides a signal indicating that the needle points to a certain altitude. A solid state transducer senses outside pressure and supplies a signal to a signal processor, which instructs a transponder to transmit an ICAA coded altitude signal. When the signal from the encoder is provided to the signal processor, it compares the altitude from the needle position with the altitude that is squawked. If the error exceeds a value stored in the signal processor, a fault is indicated to the pilot and squawked. If the error is within the stored value, an offset is computed from that value and is summed with the needle altitude and the sum is squawked. The squawked altitude is the value between the altimeter reading and the altitude indicated by the transducer.