Device for assisting in the choice of a diversion airport

• US 8,676,481 B2
• Filed: 12/09/2009
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Coulmeau, Franois, Caillaud, Christophe, Sacle, Jrme
• Primary Examiner(s): Algahaim, Helal A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hilgendorf, Dale W
• Application Number:
  US12/633,994
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,560 Days
• Field of Search: 701/3, 701/4, 701/7, 701/10, 701/14, 701/16, 701/17, 701/18, 701/120, 701/532, 701/122, 701/423
• US Class Current: 701/122
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/005 Flight directors indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0676 specially adapted for landing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• 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 a device for assisting in the choice of a diversion airport for an aircraft piloted by a crew (200), said aircraft comprising a flight management system including location means (207) calculating the position of the aircraft, said device comprising a navigation database (202) and a performance database (203) of the aircraft, said device being characterized in that it comprises a company database (201) comprising airports and characteristics of said airports, means (205) of calculating a list of airports, called candidate airports, from the airports in the company database, from the navigation database and from the selected characteristics by the crew, means (204) for calculating remaining flight time and fuel consumption predictions for each of the candidate airports from the position of the aircraft, from weather conditions and from the performance database, and an interface giving the favored airports for diversion according to pre-established criteria or determined in real time using the interface.

Claims

1. A device for assisting in a choice of a diversion airport for an aircraft piloted by a crew, said aircraft comprising a flight management system including location means calculating the position of the aircraft, said device comprising a navigation database and a performance database of the aircraft, said device further comprising:

an onboard computer for calculating remaining flight time and fuel consumption predictions for each for accessible airports from the position of the aircraft, from weather conditions and from the performance database and from the navigation database,

a company database onboard the aircraft comprising information relating to characteristics of airport services including at least one airport service selected from the group consisting of technical assistance, hosting capacities, medical assistance, and presence of police,

a first filter configured to utilize the onboard computer to determine airports in the company database that can be reached by the aircraft from a current position of the aircraft with a quantity of fuel onboard the aircraft,

a second filter for calculating a list of candidate airports from airports determined by the first filter according to selected criteria relating to said airport services, the selected criteria corresponding to availability of said services or specific values of characteristics of said services, entered by the crew, and of particular interest to said company, and

an interface for interacting with the crew for;

obtaining the selected criteria relating to airport services from the crew, displaying the list of candidate airports calculated by the second filter, and for each candidate airport, displaying related characteristics and a symbol associated with a degree of conformity of said related characteristic with the selected criteria.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the interface comprises display means on a navigation screen representing:

the aircraft, airports identified by different colors, a first color identifying airports that meet all the selected criteria related to airport characteristics, a second color identifying airports that do not have all the selected criteria related to airport characteristics and a third color identifying airports that are unsuitable for a diversion.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the interface comprises a display representing the list of candidate airports and, for each of the airports in the list:

a direction to the airport, a distance between the aircraft and the respective airport, the respective characteristics of the airport and associated predictions for reaching the airport.

4. The device according to claim 3, wherein the display representing the list of candidate airports comprises, for each airport, a series of symbols associated with characteristics, a symbol being colored according to a color code indicating a degree of conformity of the airport with regard to the selected criteria, a first color indicating full conformity, a second color indicating partial conformity and a third color indicating nonconformity.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the company database, the second filter, the onboard computer and the interface for interacting with the crew are implemented in the flight management system of the aircraft.

6. The device according to claim 1 wherein the company database, the second filter and the interface for interacting with the crew are implemented in a computer connected to the flight management system, and the onboard computer is implemented in the flight management system of the aircraft.

7. The device according to claim 1 wherein the company database, the second filter, the onboard computer and the interface for interacting with the crew are implemented in an independent application of the flight management system, said application being executed on at least one computer of the aircraft.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein the company database is capable of being more frequently updated than the navigation database.