AIRCRAFT LANDING DISPLAY APPARATUS

• US 3,784,969 A
• Filed: 12/29/1971
• Issued: 01/08/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Volkmar Wilckens, Wolfram Schattenmann
• Original Assignee: Volkmar Wilckens, Wolfram Schattenmann
• Inventors: Wilckens, Volkmar, Schattenmann, Wolfram
• Primary Examiner(s): Claffy, Kathleen H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kundert, Thomas L.
• Application Number:
  US05/213,593
• Time in Patent Office: 741 Days
• Field of Search: 340/26,27R,27AT,27NA 343/18R,18ST
• US Class Current: 340/972
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence

Abstract

Display apparatus for use on aircraft is designed to present all the required guidance information in pictorial form for use by a pilot permitting him to land an aircraft on the basis of the pictorially presented information even under the worst visual conditions.

Claims

1. A pictorial situation display system for presenting information for the control of the movement of an aircraft comprising a screen for displaying a pictorial representation of information necessary for stabilization and control of the attitude and desired path of the aircraft during a given navigational phase and means for displaying on the screen in a quantitative estimatible form the pictorial representation containing as parameters the bank angle, heading angle, pitch angle, and lateral and vertical deviation from a predetermined path, said display means including means for generating symbols on said screen precisely correlated to real and simulated outside environment features closely surounding the desired path pictorially representing the desired path as a three-dimensional view of a rectangular channel representing a runway and the flight path leading to the runway and formed by a bottom plane having a center line and two vertical sidewall planes on opposite edges of the bottom plane, each having a longitudinal line in a predetermined relation to the bottom plane and a conceptual plane through the longitudinal lines of the side wall planes locating the predetermined path relative to the pilot'"'"''"'"'s eyes.

2. A pictorial situation display system for presenting information for the control of the movement of an aircraft comprising a screen for displaying a pictorial representation of information necessary for stabilization and control of the attitude and desired path of the aircraft during a given navigational phase and means for displaying on the screen in a quantitative estimatible form the pictorial representation containing as parameters the bank angle, pitch angle, heading angle, and lateral and vertical deviation from a predetermined path, said display means including means for generating an aircraft symbol on said screen representing an image of a single aircraft located along said predetermined path, said symbol being formed by a fuselage and wing section and a tail section of an inverted T-shape, said generating means including means to move said sections relative to each other on the display screen to present a perspective view of said angle aircraft relative to the position and attitude of the piloted aircraft in relation to the predetermind path, the tail section being so dimensioned in relation to the fuselage and wing section that only at zero deviation from the predetermined path is it located within the fuselage and wing section with small gaps between its ends and the fuselage section, the wings of said fuselage section being horizontal and in line with the crosspiece of the tail section.

3. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said display means includes means for generating a channel symbol representing a runway, the height of said longitudinal lines on the said side wall planes being equal to the elevation of the pilot'"'"''"'"'s eyes at the moment of touchdown, whereby the pilot can sense the touchdown at the same time he observes the perspective angle of the upper edges of said side wall planes extending to 180* and where the width of the channel along the runway is such that safe separation between a wheel of said aircraft which is closest to the respective edge of the runway is assured when the eyes of the pilot laterally approach the position of the respective said side wall plane and where the channel extends into the sector of the airspace at the end of the runway, which is used for landing approach and is deviated upwardly so that said longitudinal lines are equal to the desired path of the pilot'"'"''"'"'s eyes.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein the height of said longitudinal lines is reduced after the touchdown indicating the elevation of the pilot'"'"''"'"'s eyes when the aircraft is at its normal taxi attitude.

5. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the sections forming the aircraft symbol on the display screen repResent the preceding aircraft in a fixed but selectible distance in front of the piloted aircraft moving along the flight path as if on a conceptual rail-like path extending in the case of landing guidance directly downwardly to the intersection of the glide slope and the runway, said conceptual path tipping up this position from the approach attitude to the horizontal which tipping up is indicated by the tail symbol dropping down relatively to the fuselage and wing section of the aircraft symbol.

6. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein the motion vectors of the pictorial representation which gives the appearance of expanding as the aircraft moves are determined by computation and the points are generated by cathode ray traces, which are of low intensity relative to the remainder of said pictorial representation so as to be practically invisible except at the point where the traces intersect and are thus brighter.

7. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the optimum bank angle for ideal interception and hold is indicated by the wings of the leading aircraft symbol, the deviation from zero bank being indicated by an additional marking.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the field of view represented on the display screen area corresponds to the angular field of view through a respective imaginary window at the position of the display screen through which window the pilot would see the outside environment features as projected on the screen surface the field of view having a 1:

1 or smaller angular relationship to the space outside the aircraft a reticle on the display area representing a longitudinal axis in the symmetry plane adjustable in pitch to be parallel to the wing axis or to the glide path in relation to the ground.

9. A system as claimed in claim 8 wherein the position of said symbols relative to each other is determined by position measuring devices on the ground and the attitude angles of the aircraft are measured by sensors on the piloted aircraft.

10. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein for an aircraft approaching the ideal path from a lateral offset a command for the bank angle for ideal interception which correspnds to the equation phi req y2/2gy is presented and the momentary value of phi req is maintained from the first moment when the actual phi reaches phi req and whereby phi req is reduced to zero when interception is completed and wherein for aircraft flying a heading which increases the lateral offset the maximum usable bank angle towards the ideal path is commanded, the maximum lateral offset y max is stored electronically and the phi req is reversed to the opposite command as soon as 50 percent of ymax is approached, and where phi req is the required bank angle, y is the lateral deviation from the desired path, y is the rate of change of y and g is the gravity constant.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the airspeed is displayed by a speed-error dependent coloring of at least part of the display area.

12. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said symbols generating means is adapted to present said symbols in the form of a plurality of dots.

13. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said symbols generating means is adapted to present said symbols in the form of a plurality of lines.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said symbols generating means is adapted to present said symbols in the form of perspective planes.

15. A system as claimed in claim 3 wherein an additional height line is provided indicating the elevation of the pilot'"'"''"'"'s eyes when the aircraft is at its normal taxi attitude.

16. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the airspeed is displayed by a colored scale moving in relation to a pointer.

17. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the airspeed is displayed by a check textured strip moving according to speed-error.