The invention is directed to an aircraft, a method for protect ^¬ ing ships and a database comprising the record of detected ships according to the independent claims.

Currently, the increasing problems of pirates boarding ships, which transport valuable goods such as oil or chemical sub ^¬ stances has become visible to the public. Ship owning companies are desperately searching for possible measures to prevent pi ^¬ rates from boarding their ships without having to arm the ships and possibly killing the pirates which would be ethically unac ^¬ ceptable .

Within the aircraft industry aircrafts are known to eject fluids into the aircraft's engines exhaust fumes to colorize the fumes.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an aircraft and a method for protecting ships from pirates as well as a da ^¬ tabase comprising the record of detected pirate's positions ac ^¬ cording to the independent claims and in particular provide a safe, reliable and ethic way of protecting ships.

The object is accomplished by an aircraft comprising an airplane body, an airplane engine and at least one container being ar ^¬ ranged inside the aircraft body for containing a fluid. The air ^¬ craft further comprises at least one nozzle for releasing the fluid contained in the container into exhaust fumes from the airplane engine. The fluid in the container is a non-lethal fluid . The arrangement of a container inside the aircraft body leads to an aerodynamic design of the aircraft. Hence, the aircraft can fly faster and safe fuel.

The fluid can be a non-lethal gas. In particular, the fluid can be smoke or fog or tear gas or nitrous oxide or capsainocides or inhalation anaesthetics.

A non-lethal gas leads to a prevention of any actions of the person or animal having had contact with the non-lethal gas. An aircraft can disseminate a non-lethal gas very rapidly, unerring and can further leave the disseminated place quickly to not be contaminated itself.

The aircraft can comprise an electro-optical detection system, in particular an infrared-system.

An electro-optical detection system enables the detection of pi ^¬ rates or pirate's ships over long distances with higher accuracy compared to vision systems. Electro-optical detection systems are for example provided by FLIR. Electro-optical detection sys ^¬ tems enable the detection of pirates in a distance of several kilometres. Even smoke or fog or clouds are no obstacle for de ^¬ tection. The electro-optical system can comprise infrared light, visible light, laser light or any combination of light ranges. Furthermore, by means of detections masks or similar methods an automated detection of pirates or an automated differentiation between ships of fishermen and ships of pirates becomes possi ^¬ ble .

The aircraft can be a jetplane. The advantage of a jetplane is its speed. Furthermore, if the container has to be refilled this speed leads to a faster re ^¬ sumption of the jetplane in duty.

The aircraft can be a helicopter.

The advantage of a helicopter is its preciseness. By mean of a helicopter the non-lethal gas can be placed precisely and only onto the spot where the non-lethal gas is desired. The danger of collateral damages is reduced.

Furthermore, the object of the invention is achieved by a method for protecting ships from pirates comprising the following steps : escorting a ship by means of at least one aircraft, in particular an aircraft as described above;

surveying a surrounding area of the ship;

localizing ships in a surrounding area;

detecting whether a localized ship is a pirate's ship, in particular by means of a infrared system; dissemination of a non-lethal fluid from the aircraft onto the detected pirate preventing the pirates to board the ship.

The method enables a safe trip of the ship through endangered areas. The pirates are not able to board the ship, the freight of the ship is transported without any losses and the pirates are not seriously harmed.

The infrared system enables to distinguish between armed pirates and non-armed ships of e.g. fishermen. A non-lethal fluid can be smoke or fog for teargas or nitrous oxide or capsainocides or inhalation anaesthetics .

The above mentioned fluid either disturbs the vision of the pi ^¬ rates or lets them temporarily fall asleep. As a matter of course, even other non-lethal fluids or combinations of fluids having the same or similar effect can be used.

The position of the detected pirates or ships can be recorded and stored in a global database.

A record of the detected pirates or ships enables a prediction where the danger of pirates is high and consequently where the ship should be escorted by an aircraft.

The database can provide data to other ships or ship owners .

The position within the database can be provided to other ships or ship owners which lead to the possibility of a risk estima ^¬ tion of other ships, if they are in danger of being boarded by pirates .

The above mentioned object is furthermore achieved by a database comprising the record of detected pirate's positions being re ^¬ corded by a method as described above.

A database enables a remote access to current pirate ships posi ^¬ tions and hence enables an online estimation of the risk of be ^¬ ing boarded by pirates in specific areas. Based on this assess ^¬ ment the ship owner or captain can decide whether to change the route and/or request for an aircraft, in particular an aircraft as described above, to escort the ship. The invention is further explained with reference to preferred embodiments and the following figures which show:

Fig. 1 a schematic view of an aircraft escorting the ship.

Fig. 2 a process overview

Fig 3 an aircraft

Fig 1 shows an aircraft 1 escorting a ship 2. The ship 2 is an oil tanker. A pirate's ship 3 is approaching the ship 2. The aircraft 1 surveilles the surroundings of the ship by means of an FLIR sapphire HD infrared system. When a ship is localized within the surveillance area it is automatically detected if the localized ship is a pirate's ship 3 by means of the infrared system 4. If the detected ship is a pirate's ship 3 the aircraft 1 disseminates a non-lethal tear gas 5 over the pirate's ship 3. Hence, any further actions of the pirates are denied.

Figure 2 shows an aircraft 1 surveilling an area. The aircraft 1 detects a pirate's ship 3 and records its position. The position is stored in database on an aircraft's homebase. Other ships 7 or ship owners can access the database 6 and track the positions of the pirate's ship 3.

Figure 3 shows an aircraft 1 whit an container 8 being arranged inside the aircraft 1. The container 8 contains inhalation an ^¬ aesthetics to be exhausted through a nozzle into the fumes of the aircraft engine. The aircraft can disseminate the non-lethal gas from container 8 anywhere within the range of the aircraft 1.