Aricraft with electrical fly-by-wire controls, equipped with an automatic pilot

• US 20020002428A1
• Filed: 05/24/2001
• Published: 01/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus France
• Inventors: Kubica, Francois
• Granted Patent: US 6,694,230 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/11
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 13/18 using automatic pilot
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 13/506 overriding of personal controls; with automatic return to inoperative position
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/101 specially adapted for aircraft

Abstract

Aircraft with electrical fly-by-wire controls, equipped with an automatic pilot.

According to the present invention, said automatic pilot consists exclusively of calculation means (9A) producing automatic pilot instructions which are sent to the computer (3) of electrical flight commands. From these automatic pilot instructions, said computer (3) produces commands for operating the automatic pilot in respect of the actuators (6) of the control surfaces (8).

Claims

1. An aircraft with electrical fly-by-wire controls, equipped with control surfaces capable of being moved by electrically operated actuators, said aircraft comprising:

controls and a flight control computer, said controls being actuated by a pilot and generating electrical control instructions which are sent to said flight control computer, the latter computer generating, from said electrical control instructions and from control parameters, operating commands sent to said actuators to move said control surfaces; and

an automatic pilot capable of piloting said aircraft in place of said pilot and exerting a navigation function making it possible to produce automatic pilot instructions from the guidance instructions and guidance parameters sent to it, and a control function which consists in producing, from said automatic pilot instructions, automatic pilot operating commands sent to said actuators to move said control surfaces,

wherein;

said automatic pilot consists exclusively of calculation means producing said automatic pilot instructions from said guidance instructions and said guidance parameters;

said calculation means are connected directly to said flight control computer so as to send said automatic pilot instructions to the latter; and

said flight control computer, from said automatic pilot instructions, produces said automatic pilot operating commands and sends these commands to said actuators to cause them to move said control surfaces correspondingly.

2. The aircraft as claimed in claim 1, wherein said electrical control instructions from said controls and said automatic pilot instructions from said calculation means of the automatic pilot are, by pairs, of the same nature.

3. The aircraft as claimed in claim 2, wherein:

said calculation means of the automatic pilot produce, from said guidance instructions and said guidance parameters, three automatic pilot instructions which correspond respectively to a commanded vertical load factor, to a commanded roll rate and to a commanded yaw; and

said controls generate three electrical control instructions which are respectively consistent with a commanded vertical load factor, with a commanded roll rate and with a commanded yaw.