Airborne system for preventing collisions of an aircraft with the terrain
First Claim
1. A system aboard an aircraft, for preventing collisions with terrain, the system comprising:
- a collision risk detector for detecting a risk of collision of the terrain, by likening the risk of collision of the terrain after a predetermined period of forecasting to penetration of a cartographic representation of the terrain overflown stored in a database accessible from the aircraft into a deployment protection volume, the deployment protection volume being tied to the aircraft located with respect to the terrain overflown by means of an airborne locating equipment and oriented in a direction of progress of the aircraft, the deployment protection volume having a lower longitudinal profile modeling a potential trajectory comprising, as first part, an extrapolation of a trajectory followed by the aircraft, predicted on the basis of the flight information delivered by the flight equipments of the aircraft, as second part, a model of a terrain avoidance maneuver trajectory engaged over the forecast period, and a transition trajectory between the first part and the second part;
a locating means for pinpointing one or more locations of the penetration of the cartographic representation of the terrain overflown on the lower longitudinal profile of the protection volume;
an alert generator for producing one or more alert messages corresponding to the one or more locations of the penetration on request of the collision risk detector; and
a particularization means for particularizing the alert messages emitted by the alert generator as a function of the one or more locations of the penetration.
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Accused Products
Abstract
This Terrain Awareness and Warning System produces a new “Too Low Terrain” predictive alert of “Caution” type when the crew of the aircraft has the possibility of resolving a detected risk of collision with the terrain without interrupting the current maneuver to stabilize at a safety altitude by a leveling-off maneuver, without performing a vertical avoidance maneuver. To do this, it measures the ability of the airplane to avoid the terrain with a sufficient margin without performing a vertical avoidance maneuver, taking into account the location or locations of the penetration or penetrations of the terrain along an alert prober C as well as the capacity of the aircraft to level off knowing the flight conditions.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A system aboard an aircraft, for preventing collisions with terrain, the system comprising:
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a collision risk detector for detecting a risk of collision of the terrain, by likening the risk of collision of the terrain after a predetermined period of forecasting to penetration of a cartographic representation of the terrain overflown stored in a database accessible from the aircraft into a deployment protection volume, the deployment protection volume being tied to the aircraft located with respect to the terrain overflown by means of an airborne locating equipment and oriented in a direction of progress of the aircraft, the deployment protection volume having a lower longitudinal profile modeling a potential trajectory comprising, as first part, an extrapolation of a trajectory followed by the aircraft, predicted on the basis of the flight information delivered by the flight equipments of the aircraft, as second part, a model of a terrain avoidance maneuver trajectory engaged over the forecast period, and a transition trajectory between the first part and the second part; a locating means for pinpointing one or more locations of the penetration of the cartographic representation of the terrain overflown on the lower longitudinal profile of the protection volume; an alert generator for producing one or more alert messages corresponding to the one or more locations of the penetration on request of the collision risk detector; and a particularization means for particularizing the alert messages emitted by the alert generator as a function of the one or more locations of the penetration. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A method of generating an alarm aboard an aircraft, the method comprising:
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detecting penetration of a cartographic representation of terrain and a deployment protection volume of the aircraft, the deployment protection volume being tied to a current position of the aircraft and extending in a direction of progress of the aircraft, and the deployment protection volume having a potential trajectory comprising a predicted trajectory, a terrain avoidance maneuver trajectory, and a transition trajectory between the predicted trajectory and the terrain avoidance maneuver trajectory; locating one or more locations of the penetration on the deployment protection volume; generating a first type of alert corresponding to the one or more locations of penetration when the one or more locations are on the terrain avoidance maneuver trajectory; and generating a second type of alert corresponding to the one or more locations of penetration when the one or more locations are not on the terrain avoidance maneuver trajectory. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification