Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot

The The Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot is a set of sub-routines in post-1995 Boeing aircraft (termed the Unauthorized Flight Detector), aimed at defeating attempts at skyjacking by removing electrical power from the flight deck, and irrevocably passing pilot authority to the autopilot and navigational computer for an automated landing at a safe airfield which can deal effectively with the incident.

System

In a hijack situation, as per the patents' texts and Pilot Authority flow diagrams, BHUAP can remove all power to the cabin and cockpit. The Aircraft Information Management System (AIMS) will still function normally, either through executing a programmed emergency flight plan, or by opening an RF data link to an external source (via the Mode S Transponder) to receive direct, remote flight management system instruction, or an up-linked flight plan transmitted to the aircraft. The AIMS has direct control over the flight surfaces through the redundant Flight Control Computer directing the actuator controls, and together with the navigation computer and autopilot, requires no pilot input to fly and land the aircraft at a location suitable for resolving a hijack situation.

What is referred to as the "Unauthorized Flight Detector" in the patents lies within the software of the Line-replaceable units making up the Boeing-Honeywell AIMS system at the heart of Boeing aircraft manufactured after 1995, and it is programmed with the software routines that monitor for the emergency circumstances on which to initiate the Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot.

History

In response to Civil Case 3:07-cv-24 at District Court, District of North Dakota on 27 February 2007, Boeing issued a statement to reporters documented on the 3rd March 2007 admitting to the existence of the Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot. The Boeing patent is US7142971B2, 19 Feb 2003 System and method for automatically controlling a path of travel of a vehicle.

As early as 2005, Boeing’s preferred avionics supplier, Honeywell, was reported to be talking to both Boeing and Airbus about fitting a device aimed at preventing a 9/11-style hijack. On the 16 April 2003, Honeywell filed patent US7475851B2 Method and apparatus for preventing an unauthorized flight of an aircraft. Airbus and BAE Systems, had been working on the project with Honeywell. Development sped up after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Earlier Precedents

Despite the public admissions by both Boeing in 2007 and Honeywell in 2003, the technical evidence shows that the Uninterruptible Autopilot has likely existed in the software of Boeing and Airbus aircraft since before the 2003 patent application dates, in fact back to the introduction of AIMS-1 in 1995.

In late 1996, a laptop and a Mode-S Transponder was used by a Dalfort Aviation Services Engineer on a Grenough Airlines Boeing 757 to initiate the BHUAP system and take Uninterruptible control of the autopilot during an autopilot return to service flight test (weight off wheels and autopilot receiving simulated air data). The witness, an Avionics Technician named Wayne Anderson, was aware that the means by which the aircraft was being controlled and the AIMS power supply did not appear on the type wiring diagrams, and the Autopilot continued to operate even after they had turned off all the available circuit breakers.

Wayne Anderson explained that the engineer was able to change autopilot settings such as heading, speed and altitude simply by up-linking new values to the Flight Management System at will, the aircraft’s autopilot system received the new settings and took action to accomplish them.

Former German Defense Minister Andreas von Bülow, in a January 13, 2002, interview with the newspaper Tagesspiegel, noted, “There is also the theory of one British flight engineer and according to this, the steering of the planes was perhaps taken out of the pilots’ hands from outside."

Andreas von Bülow continues "The Americans had developed a method in the 1970s whereby they could rescue hijacked planes by intervening into the computer piloting, the electronic flight system. This theory says this technique was abused in this case.” Von Bülow was referring to the 23rd of October 1970, Tool O K Incorporated patent US 3749335 A Autopilot system controlling entry of a craft into forbidden zones

The British flight engineer Von Bülow mentioned is Joe Vialls. In 2001, Joe Vialls’ article “France, Russia, Germany Responsible for 9-11” discussed the Boeing Uninterruptible Autopilot.

Vialls' writes “During early 1995, Boeing sales experienced an unconnected but serious internal problem in Europe, though the details were never made public. The German flag carrier Lufthansa discovered that its new Boeing 747-400 aircraft had been fitted with flight directors [auto-pilots] that were vulnerable to American remote-control, ostensibly designed to “recover” hijacked aircraft whether the hijackers wanted to be recovered or not. Lufthansa was not informed about this “free extra” in advance, and was furious that its sovereign aircraft might be covertly “rescued” by America, without the knowledge or permission of the German Government."

"In a mammoth operation rumored to cost in excess of $800 million, Lufthansa stripped every flight director out of every Boeing in its fleet, replacing them in total with German systems programmed by the Luftwaffe [German Air Force]. According to a member of the German internal security service in Frankfurt during October 1996, all Lufthansa aircraft had by that date been secured, rendering them invulnerable to remote flight director commands transmitted by any and all American authorities. Under the new intelligence protocols, Russia and France were made aware of these flight director risks.” Joe Vialls (1944 – 17 July 2005) was a former member of the Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and Technologists, London as well as a journalist, author and private investigator.

Background

1980–1999

Boeing and Honeywell along with Lockheed Martin developed the RQ-3 DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle. The UAV's flight path could be modified en route from a remote location by up-linking new waypoints to the Darkstar's Flight management system.

1980 - 1984

Boeing and Honeywell developed and launched a digitally integrated flight management system that would automatically fly an aircraft along the best route according to an integrated flight database and flight cost routines. These new digital fly-by-wire aircraft (the B757, B767 and the A310) incorporated glass cockpit systems which are essentially software driven. Drawing on their past experience in developing the flight management systems for the Apollo Project and Darkstar programs, both Boeing and Honeywell were the main driving force behind the introduction of digital autopilot technology into the civil aviation sector.

1992

To maintain the United States' technological advantage, the Department of Defense co-funded Research and Development of technology for dual military / civilian use. Manufacturers could on-sell this technology to recoup its development costs.

1993

The purpose of the Technology Reinvestment Project (TRP) unveiled by the Clinton Administration was to promote integration of the commercial and military industrial bases, through dual-use technology investments. The emphasis was on cost-sharing between the government and private sectors. This cost-share ensures industries commitment to the project and lays the foundation for industry to assume the total cost of production development, and in some cases, reuse that technology in the commercial sphere.

Development history of the Boeing Honeywell Uninterruptible Autopilot

1995–2000 (AIMS-1)

Honeywell and Boeing relocated all major flight control and navigational functions into an integrated flight management system. The new brains of the Boeing aircraft was the Airplane Information Management System (AIMS) and the Integrated Air-data Inertial Reference System (ADIRS), which are both supplied by Honeywell.

2000 onwards (AIMS-2)

At the heart of the 2000 upgrade was Honeywell’s Airplane Information Management System (AIMS) whereby the third redundant flight control computer was relocated into the AIMS with its own inaccessible secondary power supply. This resulted in the AIMS flying the aircraft with flight control only augmented by the pilot, in other words, pilot input was no longer necessary.

2001

The US government lifted restrictions on GPS error insertions into the GPS and Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) signals meaning that aircraft could navigate using the DGPS signal. This facilitated the automated landing of aircraft controlled by the Boeing-Honeywell AIMS programming introduced a year earlier.

The software for the Boeing-Honeywell 1995 AIMS and 2000 AIMS-2 upgrade was programmed using the Ada-95 Programming Language at Boeing's insistence. Previous investments in Dual-use and TRP technology could therefore be reused.