DEVICE AND METHOD FOR ASSISTING IN THE CHOICE OF REROUTING AIRPORTS

• US 20100042316A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 02/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: CAILLAUD, Christophe
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,136 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/201
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0056 in an emergency situation, e.g. hijacking

Abstract

The invention relates to assistance in the navigation of an aircraft in the cruising phase, particularly in an emergency rerouting situation. The invention relates to a method of assisting in the choice of rerouting airports for an aircraft having a position P and a speed V.: generating A first list LAC_—1 of airport names A_i is generated. The first list has N airport names, with i being an index between 1 and N which uniquely identifies an airport that an organization operating the aircraft chooses as a relevant destination. A number m is determined which is a minimum between a predefined number M and the number N. M airport names are presented from the first list LAC_—1 to an operator of the aircraft in a predefined order.

Claims

1. Method of assisting in the choice of rerouting airports for an aircraft having a position P and a speed V,

comprising the following steps:

generating a first list of airport names, the first list including N airport names, i being an index between 1 and N which uniquely identifies an airport that an organization operating the aircraft chooses as a relevant destination, an air distance separating the position P from a position of the airport, the generation of the first list of airport names being associated with a determination of an indicator, the indicator indicating the importance of the airport Ai in the network of the organization operating the aircraft, the generation of the first list of airport names including the following steps;

determining a number K of different airport names included in a first CoRoute database, the first database containing names of airports that the organization can link by a direct path with one of its aircraft, K is an index between 1 and K;

compiling the first list of airport names from airport names;

determining a number m which is a minimum between a predefined number M and the number N;

presenting m airport names from the first list to an operator of the aircraft in a predefined order based on a criterion of flight duration separating the position P from the position of the airport Ai.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flight duration criterion is based on a calculation of air distance separating the position P and the position of the airport.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the presentation of the m airport names A_i of the first list also consists in presenting, for each airport name that is presented,

an estimation of the time of arrival of the aircraft at the airport A_i,

an estimation of the heading to be followed by the aircraft to reach the airport A_i from the position P;

the air distance d_j separating the position P from the position of the airport A_i;

an estimation of a quantity of fuel needed by the aircraft to link the position P to the position of the airport A_i.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generation of the first list of airport names Ai also comprise the following steps which consist in:

determining a number of occurrences Occ(A1k) of the airport name A1k in the first CoRoute database;

assigning the number of occurrences Occ(A1k) as value to the indicator Oi.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generation of the first list of airports A_i also comprises the following steps which consist in:

determining a number L of different airport names A2_l included in a second ALTERNATE DESTINATION database, the second database containing names of potential rerouting airports for the aircraft, l being an index between 1 and L;

determining a number of occurrences Occ(A2_l) of the airport name A2_l in the second ALTERNATE DESTINATION database;

for any index l between 1 and L, when an airport name A2_l is not included in the first list, adding the airport name A2_l to the first list of airports A_i;

for any index l between 1 and L, when an airport name A2_l is identical to an airport name A_i in the first list, adding the occurrence Occ(A2_l) to the value of the indicator O_i.

6. The method according to claim 1, a second list LAC_2 of airport names AC_j comprising all the airport names A_i from the first list, j being an index between 1 and N, AC_j uniquely identifying an airport in the first list, E_i being an elevation of the airport having the name A_i, an immediate descent distance D_s(E_i) being a minimum air distance for the aircraft to reach the elevation E_i from an altitude H corresponding to the position P, a first sublist SLAC_1 being extracted from the first list and containing the names of airports A_i for which the air distance d_j separating the position P from the position of the airport A_i and the immediate descent distance D_sol(E_i) are equal, the first sublist SLAC_1 comprising p airport names, the p airport names A_i being arranged in descending order of indicators O_i, a second sublist SLAC_2 comprising N-p airport names A_i from the first list, not included in the first sublist SLAC_1, the N-p airport names A_i being arranged, in the second sublist SLAC_2, in ascending order of air distances d_i, the second list LAC_2 of airport names AC_j consisting of a concatenation of the first sublist SLAC_1 and the second sublist SLAC_2,

wherein the predefined order of presentation of m airport names from the first list consists in presenting m first airport names from the second list.

7. The method according to claim 1, a second list of airport names comprising all the airport names from the first list, j being an index between 1 and N, uniquely identifying an airport in the first list, the airport names A_i being arranged in the second list in ascending order of air distances d_i, j being an index between 1 and N,

wherein the predefined order of presentation of m airport names in the first list consists in presenting m first airport names from the second list.

8. The method according to claim 1, a second list of airport names comprising all the airport names Ai from the first list, j being an index between 1 and N, AC_j uniquely identifying an airport in the first list, the airport names A_i being arranged in the second list in descending order of indicators O_i,

wherein the predefined order of presentation of m airport names from the first list consists in presenting m first airport names from the second list.

9. The method according to claim 6, a calculation of immediate descent distance between the altitude H corresponding to the position P of the aircraft and the elevation E_i corresponding to the position of the airport is based on a descent flight profile of the aircraft which is a function of the speed V assigned to the aircraft.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position P is a current position occupied by the aircraft.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the speed V is a current speed reached by the aircraft.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the speed V is a current speed reached by the aircraft corrected by a wind value supplied by the operator.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position P is an estimation of the position reached by the aircraft.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the speed V is an estimation of the speed reached by the aircraft.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the speed V is an estimation of the speed reached by the aircraft corrected by a wind value supplied by the operator.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the speed V is an estimation of the speed reached by the aircraft corrected by a wind value extrapolated from information originating from onboard sensors on the aircraft and wind information used to make wind estimations on the flight plan.

17. The method according to claim 1, comprising a presentation step linked to the airport name and the indicator.

18. Device for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports implementing a method according to claim 1, said device having access to a first coRoute database and a second alternate destination database, said device knowing a position P of the aircraft, an altitude H corresponding to the position P of the aircraft and a speed V of the aircraft, said device having access to a first list of airport names, the first list containing all the names of airports included in a first coRoute database or a second alternate destination database, for each of the airports A_i included in the list, an indicator being determined, said indicator defining a number of occurrences of the name in the first and second coRoute and alternate destination databases,

comprising:

means for determining an air distance separating the position P of the aircraft and a position of an airport;

means for calculating an immediate descent distance between the altitude H and an elevation Ei corresponding to the position of the airport;

means for arranging the airport names in the first list in a predefined order which depends on the position P of the aircraft;

a presentation device which presents to an operator;

an estimation of the time of arrival of the aircraft at the airport;

an estimation of the heading to be followed by the aircraft to reach the airport Ai from the position P;

the air distance;

an estimation of a quantity of fuel needed for the aircraft to link the position P to the position of the airport.

19. The device for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports according to claim 18, comprising a device for predicting position information P, the altitude H and the speed V of the aircraft along a flight plan and in that the information is used to determine a list of rerouting airports.

20. The device for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports according to claim 18, wherein the presentation device also presents to the operator the indicator of each of the airports included in the first list.

21. The device for generating a first list for a device for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports according to claim 18, wherein the first list is generated from the first coRoute database and the second alternate destination database, and in that said generation device also determines, for each of the airports Ai of the first list, an indicator which defines a number of occurrences of the airport name in the first and second databases.

22. The device according to claim 21, wherein it enables an operator, via an interface, to:

delete and/or add an airport name A_i in the first list;

modify the number of occurrences O_i of the airport A_i in the first and second company route and alternate destination databases.

23. Flight management system of an aircraft, comprising:

means for determining a position P of the aircraft, an altitude H corresponding to the position P of the aircraft and a speed V of the aircraft;

a device for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports according to claim 18.

24. The flight management system of an aircraft according to claim 23, wherein it uses a first list generated by a generation device according to claim 21.

25. The flight management system according to claim 23, further comprising:

a graphical display device for representing positions of airports in a geographic zone,

means for highlighting positions of airports A_i included in the first list.

26. The flight management system according to claim 23, wherein it comprises means for displaying the position, the elevation, the length of the longest runway, the radionavigation beacon, the number of occurrences of each airport belonging to the list whose name is presented to the operator by a device for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports.