Inertial flight director system
First Claim
1. In apparatus useful in controlling an aircraft flight path on the final approach to landing, there being a localizer beam transmitted rearwardly toward the aircraft from the landing area, and there being an inertially responsive unit on the aircraft, the combination comprising(a) dual antennas carried on the aircraft and spaced apart laterally to receive said beam, and(b) means responsive to the beam signals received by the two antennas to coact with said inertially responsive unit to produce an output for controlling banking of the aircraft so as to minimize deviation of the aircraft inertial flight path from a vertically and rearwardly extending plane at the center of said localizer beam.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The disclosed apparatus is useful in controlling an aircraft inertial flight path on the final approach to landing to coincide with a desired flight path represented by the intersection of the localizer and glide path electronic beam signals, and there being an inertially responsive unit on the aircraft.
The apparatus includes:
(a) Dual antenna systems carried on the aircraft spaced apart laterally to receive said beams, and
(b) circuitry responsive to the beam signals received by the two antenna systems to coact with the inertially responsive unit to produce an output for controlling the inertial path of the aircraft to coincide with the desired path defined by said localizer and glide path signals.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. In apparatus useful in controlling an aircraft flight path on the final approach to landing, there being a localizer beam transmitted rearwardly toward the aircraft from the landing area, and there being an inertially responsive unit on the aircraft, the combination comprising
(a) dual antennas carried on the aircraft and spaced apart laterally to receive said beam, and (b) means responsive to the beam signals received by the two antennas to coact with said inertially responsive unit to produce an output for controlling banking of the aircraft so as to minimize deviation of the aircraft inertial flight path from a vertically and rearwardly extending plane at the center of said localizer beam.
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12. In the method of controlling banking of an aircraft on its final approach to landing, there being dual antennas carried by the aircraft and spaced apart laterally to receive radio signals within a localizer beam transmitted rearwardly toward the approaching aircraft, the steps that include
(a) determining the difference in beam signals received by the two antennas, and (b) utilizing said difference to command an inertially responsive device and employing said device to control the aircraft'"'"'s inertial track by controlling the angle of bank to obtain an inertial track so as to coincide with the desired approach track.
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15. In the production of a system of vector control of an aircraft on the final approach, the method comprising:
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(a) employing a speed parameter consisting of whichever is the lesser speed;
IAS compared to a target airspeed, or GS compared to the appropriate groundspeed, taking into account the appropriate TAS value of the target IAS, and applying the existing surface wind component to derive the appropriate target GS, and(b) inertially maintaining the aircraft'"'"'s inertial direction of flight to coincide with a ground based electronically derived alignment system for use on the approach, and (c) inertially maintaining the aircraft'"'"'s inertial height in alignment with a programmed inertial height guidance system to produce a programmed inertial height guidance command.
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Specification