Rotary wing aircraft proximity warning system with a geographically based avoidance system
First Claim
1. A proximity warning system for an aircraft comprising:
- a proximity sensor suite mounted to the aircraft for detecting nearby obstacles;
a database containing at least one sensitive geographic area;
an aircraft positional system; and
an avoidance system in communication with said database and said aircraft positional system, said avoidance system operable to determine an aircraft position relative said at least one sensitive geographic area and control a transmission power output of said proximity sensor suite in response to the aircraft position being within a predefined minimum threshold of said at least one sensitive area.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A safety enhancement warning system includes an avoidance system which communicates with a multiple of geographical positional systems. A geographic algorithm of the avoidance system utilizes a recursive algorithmic to determine if the aircraft will enter a sensitive area. If the aircraft distance to a sensitive area decreases below a predefined minimum threshold, then an audible and/or visual warning is issued. For certain sensitive areas, aircraft RF emissions are silenced or reduced in power when the predetermined minimum threshold breaches the sensitive area. The use of the avoidance system enables usage of relatively inexpensive UWB radar for the proximity sensor suite to assure avoidance of interference with particular delicate instruments and thereby meet regulations such as those propagated by the FCC.
56 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A proximity warning system for an aircraft comprising:
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a proximity sensor suite mounted to the aircraft for detecting nearby obstacles; a database containing at least one sensitive geographic area; an aircraft positional system; and an avoidance system in communication with said database and said aircraft positional system, said avoidance system operable to determine an aircraft position relative said at least one sensitive geographic area and control a transmission power output of said proximity sensor suite in response to the aircraft position being within a predefined minimum threshold of said at least one sensitive area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An aircraft comprising:
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a proximity sensor suite mounted to the aircraft for detecting nearby obstacles; a database containing at least one sensitive geographic area; an aircraft positional system; an avoidance system in communication with said database, said aircraft positional system and said sensor suite, said avoidance system operable to determine an aircraft position relative said at least one sensitive geographic area to control a transmission power output of said proximity sensor suite in response to the aircraft position being within a predefined minimum threshold of said at least one geographic sensitive area; and an alert system in communication with said voidance system. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method of geographic area avoidance for an aircraft comprising the steps of:
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(A) storing at least one sensitive area within a database of an avoidance system; (B) determining an aircraft position relative to the at least one sensitive area and controlling a transmission power output of a sensor system in response to the aircraft position being within a predefined minimum threshold of said at least one sensitive area; and (C) displaying an alert in response to the aircraft position being within a predefined minimum threshold of the at least one sensitive area. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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Specification