Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Vehicle control – guidance – operation – or indication – Aeronautical vehicle
Patent
1998-07-20
2000-12-12
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication
Aeronautical vehicle
701 3, 701214, 701215, 340980, 340974, 342357, G01C 2100
Patent
active
061610623
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to the aiding of the piloting of aircraft, mainly at take-off and landing, especially to enable the aircraft to take off or land under mediocre visibility conditions.
The trend nowadays is to use head-up displays (HUDs) to aid piloting: these displays make it possible to exhibit visual indications for the benefit of the pilot, these being superimposed on the actual landscape and facilitating the assessment by the pilot of the state of the aircraft at a given moment. The main indications which may be displayed are: replaces the latter if the visibility conditions are poor; thus, the pilot still sees a horizon line which is horizontal if the aircraft is horizontal and which tilts if the aircraft tilts about its longitudinal axis; the horizon depending on the longitudinal attitude of the aircraft: the pilot can ascertain the longitudinal attitude at a glance, this being an essential parameter for take-off or landing, or overshoot; the aircraft to be ascertained at a glance.
Thus, in the event of poor visibility these symbols enable the pilot to better ascertain the situation of the aircraft relative to a runway and a horizon which he has difficulty seeing. For example, an HUD system associated with an automatic pilot makes it possible to land with a vertical visibility of 35 feet (around 10 metres) and a horizontal visibility of 125 metres. Without an HUD system, the minimum visibility conditions to be complied with would have to be 50 feet (15 metres) vertically and 200 metres horizontally, in the case where the aircraft is equipped with an automatic pilot controlled by two air data units which supply the altitude and vertical velocity, and by two attitude reference units of the AHRS type (Attitude Heading Reference System) having no inertial platform, these being associated with two compasses and supplying longitudinal and lateral attitude information (on dials rather than superimposed on the landscape) together with the vertical and horizontal acceleration and the magnetic heading.
The head-up display HUD exhibits symbols calculated by a computer which uses information supplied by various detectors with which the aircraft is equipped (attitude, heading, velocities, position, altitude, etc).
However, the HUD displaying of the attitude and velocity vector symbols is only meaningful if it is sufficiently accurate. If this were not the case the symbols would be more of a nuisance than useful, the pilot not being able to rely on them for landing or take-off.
For this reason, a head-up display is generally combined with an inertial reference unit (or IRS standing for "Inertial Reference System") which can very accurately give the attitude (for example to within 0.2.degree.) and the heading (for example to within 0.5.degree.). It is this IRS unit which supplies the computer of the head-up display with the attitude, position and inertial velocity data necessary for computing and exhibiting the symbols on the HUD display.
Unfortunately an inertial unit is very expensive. An AHRS unit is much less expensive but less accurate. For a good AHRS unit, the accuracy in heading may be 1.5.degree. and the accuracy in attitude 0.5.degree.. In certain cases the unit is even less accurate and anyway not sufficiently accurate for the exhibiting of the head-up display symbology on the basis of the information from the unit to be truly meaningful.
Nevertheless, airlines are feeling the need to modernize aeroplanes by equipping them with head-up displays whereas they are equipped only with AHRS attitude and heading reference units of average quality, so that these airplanes can land and take off almost any day throughout the year regardless of the weather conditions.
Theoretically, therefore, these AHRS units ought to be replaced with IRS inertial units at the same time as the head-up display and its computer are installed so that the computer may receive accurate information from this unit. However, adding an IRS unit makes the system too expensive.
There is therefore a need for systems for aiding piloting i
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Guillard Patrice
Sicre Jean-Luc
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Sextant Avionique
To Tuan
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