Method for an aircraft navigational aid and corresponding device

US 20050234608A1
Filed: 06/27/2003
Published: 10/20/2005
Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2002
Status: Active Grant

First Claim

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1. An aircraft navigation aid method comprising the following steps:

a) computing a feeler line ground path that an aircraft would follow if a turn at the maximum rate applicable to the current flight phase of the aircraft were to begin at that instant; and

b) displaying on a navigation screen the feeler line and a ground path to be captured, in order to determine how to place the aircraft in a turn in order to optimize the capture of the path to be captured.

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Abstract

The invention relates to an aircraft navigation aid method. It comprises the following steps consisting in: a) computing a feeler line according to the wind, in other words the ground path that the aircraft would follow if a turn at the maximum rate applicable to the current flight phase of the aircraft were to begin at that instant, b) displaying on a navigation screen the feeler line and a ground path to be captured, in order to determine how to place the aircraft in a turn in order to optimize the capture of the path to be captured.

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13 Claims

1. An aircraft navigation aid method comprising the following steps:
- a) computing a feeler line ground path that an aircraft would follow if a turn at the maximum rate applicable to the current flight phase of the aircraft were to begin at that instant; and
  
  b) displaying on a navigation screen the feeler line and a ground path to be captured, in order to determine how to place the aircraft in a turn in order to optimize the capture of the path to be captured.
- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
- - 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising:
    - giving a turn command when the feeler line is tangential to the ground path to be captured.
  - 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein each computation and/or display and/or conditional turn command step is controlled automatically or by the pilot of the aircraft.
  - 4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a form of a right feeler line is given by a parametric equation of the form:
    - ${\begin{matrix} x = ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{k} t ⌋ \cos d - ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \sin {dll}^{'} \\ y = ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{k} t ⌋ \sin d + ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \cos {dll}^{'} \end{matrix}$ R_airbeing the radius of the turn that the airplane would have without wind, {dot over (θ
      
      )} being the angular speed of the airplane in the air during the turn that the airplane would have without wind, V_xand V_ybeing the components of the wind speed vector, t being the time with t=0 at the start of the turn, D_vbeing the distance to the turn and d being the drift angle.
  - 5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein a form of a left feeler line is given by a parametric equation of the form:
    - ${\begin{matrix} x = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \cos d - \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \sin dll! \end{matrix} \\ y = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \sin d + \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \cos {dll}^{'} \end{matrix} \end{matrix}$ R_airbeing the radius of the turn that the airplane would have without wind, {dot over (θ
      
      )} being the angular speed of the airplane in the air during the turn that the airplane would have without wind, V_xand V_ybeing the components of the wind speed vector, t being the time with t=0 at the start of the turn, D_vbeing the distance to the turn and d the drift angle.
  - 9. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein each computation and/or display and/or conditional turn command step is controlled automatically or by the pilot of the aircraft.
  - 10. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein a form of a right feeler line is given by a parametric equation of the form:
    - ${\begin{matrix} x = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \cos d - \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \sin dll! \end{matrix} \\ y = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \sin d + \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \cos {dll}^{'} \end{matrix} \end{matrix}$ R_airbeing the radius of the turn that the airplane would have without wind, {dot over (θ
      
      )} being the angular speed of the airplane in the air during the turn that the airplane would have without wind, V_xand V_ybeing the components of the wind speed vector, t being the time with t=0 at the start of the turn, D_vbeing the distance to the turn and d, being the drift angle.
  - 11. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein a form of a right feeler line is given by a parametric equation of the form:
    - ${\begin{matrix} x = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \cos d - \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \sin dll! \end{matrix} \\ y = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \sin d + \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \cos {dll}^{'} \end{matrix} \end{matrix}$ R_airbeing the radius of the turn that the airplane would have without wind, {dot over (θ
      
      )} being the angular speed of the airplane in the air during the turn that the airplane would have without wind, V_xand V_ybeing the components of the wind speed vector, t being the time with t=0 at the start of the turn, D_vbeing the distance to the turn and d being the drift angle.
  - 12. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein a form of a left feeler line is given by a parametric equation of the form:
    - ${\begin{matrix} x = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \cos d - \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \sin dll! \end{matrix} \\ y = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \sin d + \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \cos {dll}^{'} \end{matrix} \end{matrix}$ R_airbeing the radius of the turn that the airplane would have without wind, {dot over (θ
      
      )} being the angular speed of the airplane in the air during the turn that the airplane would have without wind, V_xand V_ybeing the components of the wind speed vector, t being the time with t=0 at the start of the turn, D_vbeing the distance to the turn and d the drift angle.
  - 13. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein a form of a left feeler line is given by a parametric equation of the form:
    - ${\begin{matrix} x = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \cos d - \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \sin dll! \end{matrix} \\ y = \begin{matrix} ⌊ R_{air} [1 - \cos (t \dot{θ})] + V_{x} t ⌋ \sin d + \\ ⌊ R_{air} \sin (t \dot{θ}) + V_{y} t + D_{v} ⌋ \cos {dll}^{'} \end{matrix} \end{matrix}$ R_airbeing the radius of the turn that the airplane would have without wind, {dot over (θ
      
      )} being the angular speed of the airplane in the air during the turn that the airplane would have without wind, V_xand V_ybeing the components of the wind speed vector, t being the time with t=0 at the start of the turn, D_vbeing the distance to the turn and d the drift angle.

6. An onboard aircraft navigation aid device comprising at least a program memory and a user interface, comprising:
- a program memory having a feeler line computation program, for computing a ground path that the aircraft would follow if a turn at the maximum rate applicable to the current flight phase of the aircraft were to begin at that instant, and a program for displaying on the user interface a path to be captured and the feeler line.
- View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
- - 7. The device as claimed in claim 6, wherein the user interface comprises means of controlling the computation of the feeler line.
  - 8. The device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the user interface also comprises means of controlling the display of the feeler line.

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Current Assignee
Thales SA
Original Assignee
Thales SA
Inventors
Jaillant, Jean-Christophe

Granted Patent

US 7,584,027 B2
Time in Patent Office

Days
Field of Search
US Class Current

701/4
CPC Class Codes

G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indica...

G05D 1/0202 specially adapted to aircraft

Method for an aircraft navigational aid and corresponding device

First Claim

1 Assignment

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Abstract

33 Citations

13 Claims

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Method for an aircraft navigational aid and corresponding device

First Claim

1 Assignment

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0 Petitions

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Accused Products

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Abstract

33 Citations

13 Claims

Specification

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Solutions

Use Cases

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