Device and method for assisting in the choice of rerouting airports

• US 8,214,136 B2
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Issued: 07/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Caillaud, Christophe
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): LOUIE, WAE LENNY
• Application Number:
  US11/963,772
• Publication Number:
  US 20100042316A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,656 Days
• Field of Search: 701/201, 701/120, 701/16, 701/210, 701/209, 340/572.1, 244/175
• US Class Current: 701/120
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0056 in an emergency situation, e.g. hijacking

Abstract

The invention relates to assistance in the navigation of an aircraft in the cruising phase, particularly in an emergency rerouting situation. The invention relates to a method of assisting in the choice of rerouting airports for an aircraft having a position P and a speed V.: generating A first list LAC_—1 of airport names A_i is generated. The first list LAC_—1 has N airport names, with i being an index between 1 and N which uniquely identifies an airport that an organization operating the aircraft chooses as a relevant destination. A number m is determined which is a minimum between a predefined number M and the number N. M airport names are presented from the first list LAC_—1 to an operator of the aircraft in a predefined order.

Claims

1. A method of assisting in rerouting for an aircraft operated by a company, the method comprising:

generating a first list of airport names, the first list including;

(a) a first predetermined number of airport names selected from a first airport database, the first airport database including airport names associated with exclusively airports identified by the company as within a company'"'"'s airport network, (b) air distances between a position of the aircraft and a first set of airports associated with the airport names in the first list, and (c) importance indicators for the first set of airports, the generation of the first list comprising;

identifying a second predetermined number of airport names associated with a second set of airports identified by the company as reachable by a direct route; and

compiling the first list of airport names based on the second set of airports;

prioritizing the airport names in the first list based on a flight duration separating the position of the aircraft from a position of at least one of the first set of airports; and

displaying, by a display screen of the aircraft, a third predetermined number of airport names selected from the top of the prioritized first list.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the flight duration is based on a calculation of an air distance separating the position of the aircraft and the position of the at least one of the first set of airports.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the display of the third predetermined number of airport names further comprising displaying, for each airport associated with the displayed airport names,

an estimation of the time of arrival of the aircraft at the airport;

an estimation of the heading to be followed by the aircraft to reach the airport from the position of the aircraft;

an air distance separating the position of the aircraft from the position of the airport; and

an estimation of a quantity of fuel needed by the aircraft to link the position of the aircraft to the position of the airport.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generation of the first list of airport names further comprises:

determining a number of occurrences for an airport name in the first airport database; and

assigning the number of occurrences as a value of the importance indicator for the airport name.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the second list of airport names comprising all the airport names from the first list, the airport names in the second list are arranged in descending order of importance indicators,

wherein the prioritizing the airport names in the first list is based on an order of the second list.

6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the generation of the first list of airport names further comprises:

generating a second list of airport names, the second list including a fourth predetermined number of airport names selected from a second airport database, the second airport database including airport names associated with airports identified by the company as potential rerouting airports;

determining numbers of occurrences for the airport names in the second airport database;

adding an airport name in the second list but not in the first list to the first list; and

adding a number of occurrences for an airport name in the second list to a value of the importance indicator of an identical airport name in the first list.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list airport names comprises:

all the airport names from the first list

an elevation of an airport included in the second list;

an immediate descent distance being a minimum air distance for the aircraft to reach the elevation from an altitude corresponding to the position of the aircraft;

a first sublist being extracted from the first list and containing at least one airport name of an airport that an air distance separating the position of the aircraft from the position of the airport and the corresponding immediate descent distances are equal, the at least one airport name in the first sublist being arranged in descending order of the importance indicator of the airport;

a second sublist comprising the other airport names from the first list not included in the first sublist, the airport names in the second sublist being arranged in ascending order of air distances to the airports included in the second sublist,

the second list of airport names is formed according to a concatenation of the first sublist and the second sublist,

wherein the prioritizing the airport names in the first list is based on an order of the second list.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the immediate descent distance between the altitude corresponding to the position of the aircraft and the elevation corresponding to the position of the airport are calculated based on a descent flight profile of the aircraft which is a function of a speed of the aircraft.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the speed is a current speed reached by the aircraft.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the speed is a current speed reached by the aircraft corrected by a wind value.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein the speed is an estimation of the speed reached by the aircraft.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein the speed is an estimation of the speed reached by the aircraft corrected by a wind value.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein the speed is an estimation of the speed reached by the aircraft corrected by a wind value extrapolated from information originating from onboard sensors on the aircraft and wind information used to make wind estimations in a flight plan.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second list of airport names comprising all the airport names from the first list, the airport names in the second list are arranged in ascending order of air distances from the position of the aircraft to positions of the airports included in the second list,

wherein the prioritizing the airport names in the first list is based on an order of the second list.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the aircraft is a current position occupied by the aircraft.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position is an estimation of the position reached by the aircraft.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the display screen of the aircraft, at least an importance indicator corresponding to one of the displayed airport names.