Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus for determining the weight and/or center of gravity of an aircraft is disclosed and includes a plurality of fittings attached to each oleo strut on the aircraft for accessing the working fluid in the oleo strut, a computer, a first, electronically-responsive valve coupled to each fitting for controlling the fluid flow through the fitting in response to control signals from the computer, a pressure transducer coupled downstream of the first valve for measuring the pressure of the working fluid therein and coupled to the computer to provide a pressure measurement signals to the computer for each strut, and an inclinometer attached to the aircraft and electronically coupled to the computer for providing incline information to the computer. A method is disclosed that includes accessing the working fluid of each oleo strut cylinder, attaching a pump to each oleo strut cylinder, cycling each oleo strut cylinder between a near fully extended position and a near fully retracted position while recording pressure measurements in the cylinder at a plurality of points between the two positions while keeping the aircraft level, and mathematically manipulating the recorded pressure measurements to arrive at an approximation of the weight on each strut. The total weight can be then found by adding the weight on each strut plus any dead weight for each strut. The center of gravity may then be determined by summing the moments for each load on each strut and dividing the total or sum of the moments by the total weight to arrive at the center of gravity.

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First Claim