Tamper resistant transponder with satellite link for airplane and ship safety

摘要

A tamper-resistant transponder system for craft is provided that inhibits attempted disablement and promotes very fast search and rescue operations for airplane and ship disasters. A key point in this invention is to have several simple transponders located on different places in the plane or a ship which can't be disabled by any means by any one or a number of people. The information which is transmitted periodically to a monitoring station through the satellite link are the GPS coordinates, date, time, altitude, speed and heading. In additions, the information may include the count of active transponders in the craft to be used to check against the number of monitored transponders. This information is the necessary and sufficient data to initiate a fast search and rescue operation anywhere in the world.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a plurality of GPS receivers deployed on a craft for capturing information independently from a GPS satellite system and configured to determine location in near real time; an automatic messaging element associated with each GPS receiver and coupled to receive information on location for its associated GPS receiver, the automatic messaging element including a transmitter operative to communicate formatted information on craft location during aircraft operation; and a power source including at least a tamper-resistant parallel power element operative to power each GPS receiver and each automatic messaging element without interruption whenever the craft is in motion; the GPS receivers and the automatic messaging elements being deployed at a plurality of positions in the craft as a transponder system, the positions being inaccessible during craft operation; in order to provide near real-time information on craft location while inhibiting disablement of the system.