System for piloting an aircraft, at least for piloting the aircraft during an autonomous approach for the purpose of landing

• US 9,587,960 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2007
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations SAS (Airbus SE)
• Inventors: Markiton, Vincent, Laine, Franck, Renault, Edith
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, John Q
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sood, Anshul
• Application Number:
  US12/095,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20080319591A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,709 Days
• Field of Search: 340947-948, 340/963, 340971-976, 340/979, 701/16, 701/17, 701 1- 4, 701 7- 8, 701/11, 701/18, 701/400, 701408-412, 342 33- 35, 244/75.1, 244/76.R, 244/175, 244183-185, 244/190, 244195-197
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G01S 19/15 Aircraft landing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0676 specially adapted for landing
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/025 Navigation or guidance aids radar or analogous systems specially adapted for landing purposes G01S13/913

Abstract

A system for piloting an aircraft during an autonomous approach for the purpose of landing. The piloting system has a flight guidance computer that directly computes, with the aid of a position indication and of information characterizing a virtual approach axis, linear deviations. Another computer computes aircraft piloting instructions using the linear deviations.

Claims

1. A system for piloting an aircraft during an autonomous approach for the purpose of landing, said piloting system comprising:

information sources comprised of;

a flight management computer that extracts information from a database connected to the flight management computer and determines from the extracted information a virtual approach axis for the aircraft, and

a positioning system configured for determining an actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft from onboard devices and for determining precision and integrity levels of the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft;

a processor comprising a flight guidance computer,

wherein said flight guidance computer comprises;

i) a first calculator that receives information characterizing the virtual approach axis determined by the flight management computer and the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft determined by the positioning system, and directly calculates, from the received information characterizing the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, perpendicular linear distances between the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, wherein the perpendicular linear distances represent a first distance calculated in a horizontal plane and a second distance calculated in a vertical plane,

ii) a second calculator that further receives the information characterizing the virtual approach axis determined by the flight management computer and the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft determined by the positioning system, and calculates, from the received information characterizing the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, lateral and vertical angular deviations between the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, and

iii) a third calculator that calculates aircraft piloting setpoints from the perpendicular linear distances calculated by said first calculator;

a piloting aid configured to receive the aircraft piloting setpoints and assist in guiding the aircraft to land according to the aircraft piloting setpoints;

a display and control system that displays the lateral and vertical angular deviations calculated by the second calculator; and

a warning and surveillance system that carries out surveillance from the lateral and vertical angular deviations.

2. The piloting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the piloting aid is an autopilot.

3. An aircraft, comprising the piloting system of claim 1.

4. The piloting system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the positioning system is further configured to dispatch a message to the flight management computer to display the autonomous approach unavailable, in the event that precision and integrity level of the current, actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft are determined by the positioning system to be below a required performance level.