Aircraft flight correction process

Details Aircraft flight correction process Aircraft flight correction process

1999-07-21

2000-12-19

Nguyen, Tan

Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location

Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication

Aeronautical vehicle

701 10, 340979, G05D 108

Patent

active

061637440

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method of correcting the flight of an aircraft, in which method the values of flight-influencing parameters that determine the predetermined flight are supplied to a computer and stored there.
Methods of this type can generally be used in flight-control systems for manned or unmanned aircraft such as airplanes, helicopters, airships, etc.
These methods are particularly suited for use in modern aircraft that are equipped with a flight-control system, especially a flight-guidance/flight-management system (FMS).
In the field of aviation, the increasing air-traffic density, the increasing complexity of modern aircraft and the associated, more complicated job of aircraft pilots have led to considerations of how pilots can be supported in different cockpit activities to make flying safer. The results of these considerations are, for example, navigation-management systems or the aforementioned flight-guidance/flight-management systems, which, however, require numerous manual pilot inputs for adapting the generally predetermined flight between start and landing, that is, the "flight plan," to current air-traffic control instructions and changes in the particular aircraft or the environment. Consequently, the pilots are frequently diverted from other tasks, which can pose a safety threat. Since, because of this problem, the adaptation of the flight is often omitted under time constraints, the advantages of these systems are frequently not utilized during the entire flight.
It is therefore the object of the invention to provide a method with which the provided flight of an aircraft can be automatically corrected following a change in the flight-relevant parameters.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above object generally is achieved according to the present invention by a method of correcting the flight of an aircraft, in which method includes the following features: predetermined flight are supplied to a computer and stored there; supplied to the computer and compared there to the stored values; criteria, the computer first checks whether a flight correction is necessary due to the change in the parameter values, and, if need be, the computer subsequently determines new parameter values for a corrected flight and stores them in the computer instead of the previously-stored parameter values; and performed again as needed.
An essential advantage of the invention is that it permits an autonomous as well as interactive creation of flight plans as a reaction to, for example, air-traffic control instructions or incomplete pilot inputs. These changed flight plans effect a change in the flight path if they are supplied to the aircraft (e.g. the airplane) via the flight-guidance/flight-management system and the auto pilot, for example, or if the pilot flies the aircraft manually.
In contrast to the methods employed in pilot-support systems conceptualized up to now (see /1/, for example), the method of the invention can be used without comprehensive infrastructure-related measures, for example in a modern commercial aircraft. Commercial use could thus very soon remedy the main problems of current flight-guidance/flight-management systems (complicated reprogramming in stressful flight phases), and thereby permit extensively-automatic flying (with pilot control) from start to landing, even in unusual situations.
The invention is described in detail below in conjunction with the drawings .


BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a change in flight status that is effected with the aid of a preferred embodiment of the method of the invention and a flight-guidance/flight-management system,
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a change in flight status that is effected with the aid of a known flight-guidance/flight-management system (compare to FIG. 1),
FIG. 3 is a functional representation, similar to a block diagram, of the preferred embodiment of the method of the invention according to FIG. 1,
FIGS. 4-5 schematic representation of an example of a predetermined fl

REFERENCES:
patent: 4811230 (1989-03-01), Graham et al.
patent: 4812990 (1989-03-01), Adams et al.
patent: 5398186 (1995-03-01), Nakhla
patent: 5574647 (1996-11-01), Liden
patent: 5715163 (1998-02-01), Bang et al.
patent: 5892462 (1999-04-01), Tran

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