SPECIFICATION OF THE INVENTION

The Opto Monitoring of Ingestion of Foreign Objects into Aircraft Engine consist of optical screen (6) & (7) made of photo transmitters and detectors placed diagonally opposite side, inside the air intake system of the engine so has to cover the entire cross section of the air intake. The processor interfaced to the detector will sense detector output change in the presence of the foreign body and trigger the calculation of size of the foreign object as well as trigger spectral analyzer/high speed camera (3) to enable recording and further study of intrusion. Spectral analyzer/high speed camera will be focused on first stage of engine blades to study any impact of foreign object on the blades. The lowest size of the intrusion detection will be determined by the fall time of the photo detectors used / thickness of the curtain (w) (1), number of curtain (6)f(7) used and spacing between the curtains (L) (2).

CLAIMS

We claim that

1. This system can detect ingestion of foreign object by an aircraft engine in real¬time during a mission

2. The system comprises of an opto-electronic circuit comprising of optical curtains made of photo transmitters and detectors to detect an object

3. The system comprises of spectral analyzer/high speed camera directed towards first stage of engine blades to determine any damage due to ingestion of foreign object

4. The system comprises of a triggering circuit to initiate the recording of video and data. This will reduce the record time of the video and amount of data analysis

5. This system can determine the side cross section of the ingestion object from the shadow of the object on the detector and time of shadowing

6. The output of the system can be provided to cockpit display system (through proper interfaces). This will enhance the aircraft operation and mission safety by timely informing the pilot about level of engine damage

7. The system can optimizes the post flight engine inspection and maintenance methodology and can reduce the ground crew effort