VIEWING DEVICE FOR AIRCRAFT COMPRISING RADIO NAVIGATION BEACON DISPLAY MEANS AND ASSOCIATED METHOD

• US 20100145610A1
• Filed: 08/17/2009
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Nouvel, Christian, BACABARA, Corinne, Perbet, Jean-Noel
• Application Number:
  US12/542,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20100145610A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/208
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32

Abstract

The general field of the invention is that of viewing systems of synthetic vision SVS type, comprising at least one navigation database, a cartographic database of a terrain, position sensors, a radio navigation beacon sensor, an electronic computer, a human-machine interface means and a display screen, the computer comprising means of processing the different information obtained from the databases, from the sensors and from the interface means, said processing means arranged so as to provide the display screen with a synthetic image of the terrain including a representation of the beacons present on said terrain. In the system according to the invention, the beacons present beyond a first distance from the system are not represented, the beacons present at a distance between said first distance and a second distance less than the first distance are represented in symbolic form, the beacons present at a distance less than the second distance are represented in physical form.

Claims

1. Viewing system of synthetic vision SVS type, comprising at least one navigation database, a cartographic database of a terrain, position sensors, a radio navigation beacon sensor, an electronic computer, a human-machine interface means and a display screen, the computer comprising means of processing the different information obtained from the databases, from the sensors and from the interface means, said processing means arranged so as to provide the display screen with a synthetic image of the terrain including a representation of the beacons present on said terrain, wherein the beacons present beyond a first distance from the system are not represented, the beacons present at a distance between said first distance and a second distance less than the first distance are represented in symbolic form, the beacons present at a distance less than the second distance are represented in physical form.

2. The viewing system according to claim 1, wherein the symbolic representation of the beacon comprises three parts, a bottom part located at the conformal placement of the position of the beacon on the terrain, a vertical junction line and a standardized symbol representing the beacon arranged above said junction line.

3. The viewing system according to claim 2, wherein the symbolic representation also includes an indication of the transmission frequency of the beacon.

4. The viewing system according to claim 2, wherein the junction line has a size that is sufficient for the standardized symbol to dominate the surrounding terrain and not be masked by the relief.

5. The viewing system according to claim 2, wherein, from a certain distance, the symbolic representation has an apparent display size representative of a constant size on the terrain.

6. The viewing system according to claim 2, wherein the symbolic representation of the beacon undergoes a change of appearance according to whether the signal transmitted by the beacon is picked up or not.

7. The viewing system according to claim 6, wherein the change of appearance is either a blinking, or a change of colour, or a change of line type.

8. The viewing system according to claim 1, wherein the physical representation of the beacon is representative of the external appearance of the beacon.

9. The viewing system according to claim 2, wherein the beacons are represented as semi-transparent.

10. Radio navigation beacon display method for a viewing system of synthetic vision SVS type mounted on a carrier, said system comprising at least one navigation database, a cartographic database of a terrain, position sensors, a radio navigation beacon sensor, an electronic computer, a human-machine interface means and a display screen, the computer comprising means of processing the different information obtained from the databases, from the sensors and from the interface means, said processing means arranged so as to provide the display screen with a synthetic image of the terrain including a representation of the beacons present on said terrain, characterized in that the method comprises the following steps:

search for the beacons present beyond a first distance from the carrier according to the databases and the position of the carrier;

Determination, for the beacons that are found, of the distance from said beacons;

For the beacons present at a distance between said first distance and a second distance less than the first distance, display of said beacons in symbolic form;

For the beacons present at a distance less than the second distance, display of said beacons in physical form.