Visual display system for an aircraft

• US 20080119969A1
• Filed: 11/22/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: McCullough, Susan L., Pearson, Mark A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,265,801 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32

Abstract

A visual display system includes a monitor for displaying a visual display; a memory having a user application definition file containing information related to the visual display; and a processor coupled to the monitor and the memory, the processor configured to receive runtime parameters from a flight management system and provide the visual display to the monitor based on the runtime parameters and the user application definition file. The visual display includes at least one hotkey.

Claims

1. A visual display system comprising:

a monitor for displaying a visual display;

a memory having a user application definition file containing information related to the visual display; and

a processor coupled to the monitor and the memory, the processor configured to receive runtime parameters from a flight management system and provide the visual display to the monitor based on the runtime parameters and the user application definition file, the visual display including at least one hotkey.

2. The visual display system of claim 1, wherein the visual display further comprises at least one static key.

3. The visual display system of claim 1, wherein the hotkey is defined in an airline modifiable information file in the flight management system and provided to the processor in the runtime parameters.

4. The visual display system of claim 1, wherein the at least one hotkey is a direct link to a predefined screen page.

5. An aircraft system, comprising:

a flight management system having a plurality of data sources, the data sources including an aircraft modifiable information file; and

a visual display system coupled to the flight management system, the visual display system comprising

a monitor for displaying a visual display,

a memory having a user application definition file containing information related to the visual display, and

a processor coupled to the monitor and the memory, the processor configured to receive runtime parameters from the flight management system based on the aircraft modifiable information file and provide the visual display to the monitor based on the runtime parameters and the user application definition file, the visual display including at least one hotkey.

6. The aircraft system of claim 5, wherein the visual display further comprises at least one static key.

7. The aircraft system of claim 5, wherein the hotkey is defined in an airline modifiable information file in the flight management system.

8. The aircraft system of claim 5, wherein the at least one hotkey is a direct link to a predefined screen page.

9. The aircraft system of claim 5, wherein the airline modifiable information file includes an airline modifiable information file data table.

10. The aircraft system of claim 9, wherein the airline modifiable information data table is configurable by a user to assign a screen page to the at least one hotkey.

11. The aircraft system of claim 9, wherein the airline modifiable information data table is configurable by a user to assign a plurality of screen pages to a plurality of the at least one hotkey.

12. The aircraft system of claim 9, wherein the airline modifiable information data table includes a hotkey ID list, a page mapping list, a visibility list, an enable list, and a text list.

13. The aircraft system of claim 12, wherein the page mapping list associates a screen with a respective hotkey from the hotkey ID list.

14. The aircraft system of claim 12, wherein the visibility list designates the visibility for the at least one hotkey.

15. The aircraft system of claim 12, wherein the enable list designates the enablement for the at least one hotkey.

16. The aircraft system of claim 5, wherein the airline modifiable information file is modifiable by a user with a ground based software tool.

17. A method for displaying a visual display in an aircraft, the method comprising:

defining at least one hotkey in an airline modifiable information file;

loading the an airline modifiable information file into a flight management system;

providing runtime information based on the airline modifiable information file to a visual display system; and

producing the visual display with at least one hotkey based on the runtime information.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the producing step includes producing the visual display with a visual display system that includes a user application definition file (UADF).

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one hotkey is a direct link to a predefined screen page, and the UADF includes at least one undefined hotkey that is defined in the defining step.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the airline modifiable information file includes an airline modifiable information file data table, the airline modifiable information data table including a hotkey ID list, a page mapping list, a visibility list, an enable list, and a text list.