METHOD AND DEVICE FOR ASSISTING THE MISSION TRACKING OF AN AIRCRAFT

• US 20140005861A1
• Filed: 06/05/2013
• Published: 01/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: MERE, Jean-Claude, BABANDO, Olivier, MARINELLI, Mauro, DRAMET, Julien
• Granted Patent: US 9,254,910 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 19/00 Aircraft control not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0052 for cruising combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value G01C23/00

Abstract

The device (1) comprises means (15) for computing deviations of a flight parameter with respect to a reference flight plan, by taking account of predictions, respectively for a plurality of flight data representing different origins, and display means (5) for simultaneously presenting the set of said deviations on a screen (6) of the flight deck of the aircraft, each time indicating the corresponding origin.

Claims

1. A method for assisting the mission tracking of an aircraft, according to which method, in the course of a flight of said aircraft, in an automatic manner:

the actual values of parameters relating to said aircraft are measured;

for at least one flight parameter, deviations of said flight parameter with respect to a reference flight plan relating to a reference mission are computed, doing so by carrying out, for each of a plurality of flight data representing respectively different origins of deviations, each time the following operations;

a prediction is carried out at the current flight point of said flight parameter, on the basis of the flight plan actually flown, taking account of said measured actual values; and

the deviation is computed between this prediction obtained on the basis of the flight plan actually flown and the value of said flight parameter that is representative of said reference flight plan, this deviation thus computed being a deviation of said flight parameter relating to the corresponding origin; and

the set of deviations thus computed for said flight parameter is presented simultaneously on a screen (6) of the flight deck of the aircraft, each time indicating the corresponding origin.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said flight parameter represents one of the following parameters:

the quantity of fuel at a given point; and

the transit time at a given point.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein said flight data representing different origins of deviations, comprise at least some of the following data:

the speed;

the wind;

the temperature;

the altitude;

the route.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein, for a flight parameter representing the quantity of fuel, the following operations are carried out:

a consumption prediction is carried out at the current point of the flight on the basis of the flight plan actually flown, by taking account of the evolution of a performance factor and of the flight conditions actually encountered;

the deviation in consumption is computed at the current point between on the one hand said consumption prediction obtained on the basis of the flight plan actually flown and on the other hand the consumption arising from the reference flight plan; and

processings dependent on the value of this consumption deviation are implemented.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4,

wherein the deviation is determined, moreover, between the consumption predicted at said current point and the measured consumption, which corresponds to a deviation with indeterminate origin.

6. The method as claimed claim 1,

wherein, at the start of a mission, an input initial flight plan is compared automatically with said reference flight plan.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein, in the course of a mission, the reference flight plan is automatically replaced with a current flight plan if particular conditions are fulfilled.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein at least one alert message is emitted, when at least one flight parameter exhibits a drift greater than a threshold value, between on the one hand the current flight plan and on the other hand the reference flight plan.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1,

wherein at least one graphic is displayed, moreover, simultaneously illustrating the following evolutions of a flight parameter:

the actual evolution up to the current position, and then predicted, along an active flight plan;

the evolution along the reference flight plan; and

at least one limit.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9,

wherein the evolution of said flight parameter along an alternative flight plan is, moreover, displayed.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9,

wherein several graphics relating respectively to various flight parameters are displayed on said screen simultaneously.

12. A device for assisting the mission tracking of an aircraft, said device (1) comprising:

means (10) for retrieving and processing a reference flight plan relating to a reference mission;

means (2) for measuring the actual values of parameters relating to the aircraft, in the course of a flight of said aircraft;

computation means (15) for computing, for at least one flight parameter, deviations of said flight parameter with respect to a reference flight plan relating to a reference mission, said computation means (15) comprising elements for carrying out, for each of a plurality of flight data representing respectively different origins of deviations, each time the following operations;

carrying out a prediction at the current flight point of said flight parameter, on the basis of the flight plan actually flown, taking account of measured actual values; and

computing the deviation between this prediction obtained on the basis of the flight plan actually flown and the value of said flight parameter that is representative of said reference flight plan, this deviation thus computed being a deviation of said flight parameter relating to the corresponding origin; and

display means (5) for presenting on a screen (6) of the flight deck of the aircraft, simultaneously the set of deviations thus computed for said flight parameter, each time indicating the corresponding origin.

13. The device as claimed in claim 12,

which comprises, moreover:

means (11) for retrieving and processing an active flight plan and an alternative flight plan; and

means (13) for retrieving and processing data of computation modules.

14. The device as claimed in claim 12,

which comprises, moreover, means (14) for managing alerts.

15. An aircraft,

which comprises a device (1) such as that specified under claim 12.