Semiautonomous flight director

Aeronautics and astronautics – Aircraft control – Automatic

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C244S190000, C244S197000, C244S195000, C244S196000, C244S183000, C244S189000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06460810

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
With regard to the prior art apparatuses in contrast to the Semiautonomous Flight Director (SFD) device disclosed herein which supplants pilot's skill in flying an aircraft employing an autopilot; all of the prior art apparatuses require a skilled pilot's knowledge and abilities for safe and/or effective operation of an aircraft employing an autopilot whether manned or unmanned. To one degree or another each prior art apparatus either augments, on a limited basis or assists on a limited basis, a skilled pilot's direct operation of an aircraft's flight controls or they afford a skilled pilot a means by which to better utilize an autopilot while in flight. However, none of the prior art apparatuses supplant's the pilot's skill in flying an aircraft whether manned or unmanned.
The primary departure, of the SFD, from the prior art is that the prior art requires that the pilot temporarily over ride or disconnect from the autopilot and take “direct” control of an aircraft's flight controls to make changes in the aircraft's flight direction. The fields of aerospace and aviation teaches that such changes in an aircraft's flight controls can only be made safely by a skilled pilot, skilled in flying the particular aircraft flown.
All of the prior art allows for direct control of an aircraft's flight controls by a pilot whether or not the pilot employs an installed autopilot or not. The SFD on the other hand does not allow direct control of an aircraft's flight controls in order to effect safe flight when the SFD is employed with an autopilot.
The SFD's secondary departure from the prior art is that the prior art requires that the pilot temporarily disengage or over ride the autopilot to make changes in the aircraft's flight controls in order to subsequently program or reprogram the autopilot whereas the SFD allows for continuous autopilot control of the aircraft while coincidentally allowing the pilot to make changes in direction or flight function.
The third and paramount departure from all the prior art devices is the manner by which the prior art effects the programming or reprogramming of an autopilot while in flight which requires the pilot to have the necessary skills in flying the particular aircraft flown in order to safely effect such programming or reprogramming of an autopilot whereas the SFD does not require such skills in order to safely program or reprogram an autopilot while in flight.
With regard to the prior art it is during the periods of time where the pilot overrides, disengages, or otherwise suspends the autopilot's control over the aircraft that precludes the safe operation of an aircraft by an unskilled pilot or operator.
The prior art always employs a plurality of means to control an aircraft either by the direct control of the aircraft by a skilled pilot or the aircraft is controlled autonomously by the autopilot. The term “Semiautonomous” as applied in this application means that the aircraft is controlled singularly, at all times, by the autopilot; autonomously, but, re-programmable without temporarily suspending the autopilot's control of the aircraft to make flight changes.
Flight control, situational awareness and the lack thereof for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilots is of particular concern to UAV manufacturers and users alike. Most specifically military and non-military government users. As of the date of this application, over eighty-five percent of all UAVs currently being flown in the world today will crash as a result of a UAV pilot's lack of situational awareness and the resulting loss of flight control over the UAV flown regardless of any given UAV pilot's skill and/or experience level. These factors, according to current UAV mishap statistics, are of paramount importance to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and the National Transportation and Safety Board with respect to their authorization for use and implementation of UAV technology in the civilian and commercial aviation sectors.
The SFD was specifically devised to address these issues of pilot situational awareness in UAV's and more specifically the horizontal or vertical take off or landing (HOVTOL) UAV of U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,441 issued Apr. 6, 1999 to the applicant Terry J. James and Johnny Swinson (deceased; Suanne Walker, executrix). It is consequential that the SFD provides a means by which manned aircraft may be piloted by unskilled pilots or utilized by skilled pilots of manned aircraft to reduce cockpit workload as well as other UAV platforms.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880 issued on Oct. 26, 1993, to Woon Lyloc and David C. Pattison, is a manual override apparatus which allows only a skilled pilot to safely override autopilot operation in aircraft that have fly by wire or fly by light flight control systems as opposed to mechanical flight control systems having an autopilot system.
In the prior art device of U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880 a pilot does not have to disengage the autopilot in order for a skilled pilot to make direct changes to the flight controls of an aircraft employing the device. The degree and amount of linear change made by the action of a pilot displacing a given aircraft's manual control stick or yoke is sensed by a circuit when the pilot places a specific amount of force on the control stick or yoke. Once the amount of force level in the pilot's yoke or control stick reaches a certain threshold, the magnitude and degree of control stick deviation, and movement, in linear terms, of the pilots' control stick or yoke movement effects a proportionate degree of change in the aircraft's flight controls to the exact degree of deviation made in the pilot's control stick or yoke as in normal flight.
It is important to note here, that in the application of U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880, only a skilled pilot having the knowledge and sufficient specific skills in flying a particular aircraft under non-autopilot operation could safely make such linear deviations in the control stick or yoke of such an aircraft in order to avert directing the autopilot to initiate a negative or dangerous flight maneuver. The autopilot employing this device would only effect the changes initiated by the pilot to include negative and acrobatic maneuvers. The reason for this is that the amount of deviation made in the pilot's control stick is directly related and linearly proportionate to the amount and degree of linear and proportional change effected in the flight controls of the particular aircraft flown by the pilot. If the pilot was unskilled in flying the aircraft a crash could occur as a result of placing too much or too little displacement in the control stick or yoke.
This is to say that, in the application of the prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880, if an unskilled pilot were to place the control stick into a position and to such a degree that it would cause a negative or dangerous flight maneuver the flight controls of the aircraft flown under autopilot command employing the prior art would likewise place said aircraft in a negative or dangerous flight regime. This could result in the loss of aerodynamic control of the aircraft if it were not for the prior art's requirement for a trained pilot's skill being necessary in precluding the placing of the control stick in such a position as to cause a dangerous or negative flight regime. The prior art of U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880, therefore, requires a skilled pilot in order to safely utilize the invention.
The advantage of U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,880 is it allows override control of the autopilot's flight controls of an aircraft having a fly by wire or fly by light flight control system without disengaging the autopilot whereby a skilled pilot may make changes directly to the flight controls even when the autopilot is active.
A disadvantage of this prior art device is that it is not applicable to aircraft having flight control systems other than fly by light or fly by wire

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