High-precision near-land aircraft navigation system
First Claim
1. A method of aircraft navigation using radar, comprising:
- storing information of cultural or natural features in an area of the ground along and to the sides of a flight path;
using said radar during flight to obtain information of said features along and to the sides of said flight path;
comparing said stored information with said information obtained by radar to determine successive different match points representing different ground locations;
determining the range and range rate of each of said match points;
determining the aircraft'"'"'s location and velocity based on repetitive range and range rate measurements of said match points; and
supplementing the accuracy of said aircraft location and velocity determination with information from at least one of an additional navigation unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An aircraft including an approach and landing system, including a navigation unit for providing navigation information, a weather radar unit for providing radar information, a processor which receives navigation information from the navigation unit and information from the weather radar unit, the processor unit providing an output representing information concerning the aircraft in accordance with the provided navigation information and radar information, a memory for storing information representing a scene, the processor unit correlating the stored scene information with the output representing information concerning the aircraft to provide a mapped scene, a display unit for displaying the output of said processor and the mapped scene, and a steppable frequency oscillator for providing a signal which is stepped in frequency to the weather radar unit, thereby providing an increased range resolution.
72 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of aircraft navigation using radar, comprising:
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storing information of cultural or natural features in an area of the ground along and to the sides of a flight path; using said radar during flight to obtain information of said features along and to the sides of said flight path; comparing said stored information with said information obtained by radar to determine successive different match points representing different ground locations; determining the range and range rate of each of said match points; determining the aircraft'"'"'s location and velocity based on repetitive range and range rate measurements of said match points; and supplementing the accuracy of said aircraft location and velocity determination with information from at least one of an additional navigation unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of aircraft navigation using radar, comprising:
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storing information of cultural or natural features in an area of the ground along and to the sides of a flight path; using said radar during flight to obtain information of said features along and to the sides of said flight path; comparing said stored information with said information obtained by radar to determine match points representing different ground locations; determining the range and range rate of said match points; and using said range and range rate in the navigation or state vector measurements of said aircraft. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification