METHOD AND DEVICE FOR AIDING THE CONTROL OF AN AIRCRAFT DURING A PARABOLIC FLIGHT IN ORDER TO GENERATE WEIGHTLESSNESS IN THE AIRCRAFT

• US 20150076288A1
• Filed: 09/10/2014
• Published: 03/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: DELPORTE, Martin
• Granted Patent: US 9,321,523 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 244/221
• CPC Class Codes: B64C 13/0421 control sticks for primary flight controls
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0607 specially adapted for aircraft

Abstract

Method and device for aiding the control of an aircraft during a parabolic flight in order to generate weightlessness in the aircraft.

The device includes an unit for automatically calculating a control stick order corresponding to a current optimum position of the control stick for carrying out a parabolic flight, an unit for automatically determining an actual position of the control stick, and a display unit (13) for automatically displaying, on at least one scale (16) that is displayed on a cockpit screen (17), simultaneously a first indicator (18) corresponding to said control stick order and a second indicator (19) corresponding to said actual position of the control stick.

Claims

1. Method for assisting the piloting of an aircraft (AC) during a parabolic flight in order to generate weightlessness in the aircraft (AC), said aircraft (AC) comprising a control stick (2) capable of actuation by a pilot to alter its position and configured to act on at least one elevator (4) so as to generate piloting of the aircraft AC on the pitch axis according to the position of said control stick (2), said method comprising a sequence of steps, carried out in an automatic and repeated manner, during a parabolic flight of the aircraft (AC) and consisting in real time in:

a) computing a control stick command corresponding to an optimum current position of the control stick (2) for parabolic flight;

b) determining an effective current position of the control stick (2); and

c) simultaneously showing, on at least one scale (16) of control stick positions which is displayed on a screen (17) of the cockpit;

a first indicator (18) representing said control stick command computed in step a); and

a second indicator (19) representing said effective current position of the control stick (2), determined in step b),

wherein in step a) said control stick command C is computed on the basis of the following equation;

C=k0+k1*cos θ

/V+k2*sin 2θ

/V²

in which;

θ

is a current angle of pitch of the aircraft (AC);

V is a current speed of the aircraft (AC); and

k0, k1 and k2 are predetermined constants.

2. Method according to claim 1,

wherein the angle of pitch of the aircraft (AC) is measured by means of at least one inertial sensor on board the aircraft (AC).

3. Method according to claim 1,

wherein the speed of the aircraft (AC) is determined by means of at least one of the following onboard means:

at least one inertial sensor;

at least one receiver of a satellite positioning system; and

at least one pressure or temperature sensor.

4. Method according to claim 1,

wherein in step c) the scale (16) is displayed vertically and said first and second indicators (18, 19) are displayed on either side of this vertical scale (16).

5. Method according to claim 1,

wherein it comprises an additional step, which precedes step a) and consists in determining the constants k0, k1 and k2 by carrying out the following operations:

determining and recording, in real time, values for the angle of pitch of the aircraft, for the speed of the aircraft and for deflection of the control stick, over the course of at least one parabolic flight performed by means of at least one of the following operations;

at least one simulation and/or at least one flight test; and

computing said constants k0, k1 and k2 on the basis of the values for the angle of pitch, for the speed and for deflection of the control stick, thus recorded.

6. Device for assisting the piloting of an aircraft during a parabolic flight of an aircraft (AC) in order to generate weightlessness in the aircraft (AC), comprising a control stick (2) capable of actuation by a pilot to alter its position and configured to act on at least one elevator (4) so as to generate piloting of the aircraft on the pitch axis according to the position of said control stick (2), said device (1) comprising:

a computation unit (11) configured for automatically computing a control stick command corresponding to an optimum current position (2) for parabolic flight;

a position determination unit (12) configured to automatically determine an effective current position of the control stick (2); and

a display unit (13) configured to automatically show on at least one scale (16) of control stick positions which is displayed on a screen (17) of the cockpit, simultaneously;

a first indicator (18) representing said control stick command computed for said computation unit (11); and

a second indicator (19) representing said effective current position of the control stick (12), determined by said position determination unit (12),

wherein said computation unit (11) is configured to automatically compute said control stick command C on the basis of the following equation;

C=k0+k1*cos θ

/V+k2*sin 2θ

/V²

in which;

θ

is a current angle of pitch of the aircraft (AC);

V is a current speed of the aircraft (AC); and

k0, k1 and k2 are predetermined constants.

7. Device according to claim 6,

wherein it additionally comprises a set (20) of information sources, comprising at least one of the following information sources:

at least one inertial sensor;

at least one receiver of a satellite positioning system; and

at least one pressure or temperature sensor.

8. System for manually piloting an aircraft, said manual pilot system (3) comprising a control stick (2) capable of actuation by a pilot to alter its position and configured to act on at least one elevator (4) so as to generate piloting of the aircraft AC on the pitch axis according to the position of said control stick (2),

wherein it additionally comprises a piloting assistance device (1) as specified in claim 6.

9. Aircraft,

wherein it comprises a piloting assistance device (1) as specified in claim 6.

10. Aircraft,

wherein it comprises a manual pilot system (3) as specified in claim 8.