Communications: electrical – Aircraft alarm or indicating systems – Nonalarm flight indicator
Patent
1999-02-02
2000-08-29
Lee, Benjamin C.
Communications: electrical
Aircraft alarm or indicating systems
Nonalarm flight indicator
340973, 340974, 244181, 244183, 701 14, 701 16, 73178R, 73178T, G01C 2300
Patent
active
061115266
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for assisting the piloting or the simulation of the piloting of a vehicle. It applies mainly to aircraft, but it can be applied also to all sorts of other air, land or sea vehicles, especially when they are manoeuvred in a three-dimensional space. The invention will be described with regard to the piloting of an aircraft, and in particular the piloting in the landing phases.
2. Discussion of the Background
Under manual piloting, the pilot acts by sight to modify the direction of movement of his vehicle for the aid of the trim and engine controls.
Assistance with the manual piloting of an aircraft can be carried out by displaying, in front of the pilot's eyes, symbols representing the terrestrial environment and the movement of this aircraft, these symbols being superimposed, when the visibility is sufficient, with the real horizon and real environment seen by the pilot through the windscreen of his vehicle. The position and shape of the symbols are computed and displayed for example by the computer controlling a head-up collimator from data supplied by sensors carried on board the aircraft.
On the display screen of a known device for assisting aircraft piloting, the artificial horizon computed is symbolized by a line which tilts as a function of the lateral tilt (angle of roll) of the aircraft. It is superimposed on the visible real horizon if visibility is sufficient. It replaces it when visibility is insufficient. The projection at infinity of the longitudinal axis of the aircraft is portrayed by a symbol termed the "aircraft symbol". This symbol is above the horizon line to a greater or lesser extent depending on whether the aircraft is nose-up to a greater or lesser extent (greater or lesser longitudinal attitude of the aircraft); the attitude of the aircraft can be referenced by the position of the aircraft symbol in front of an attitude scale perpendicular to the horizon line. The lateral position of the aircraft symbol, representing the heading followed, is referenced moreover with respect to a graduated scale referenced with respect to north and scrolling along the horizon line. For the pilot, the position of the aircraft symbol on the screen portrays the longitudinal axis of the aircraft at any moment.
For landing, the terrestrial environment reconstructed on the display screen can be supplemented with a representation of the runway whose characteristics are catalogued in landing strip configuration documents which can be accessed by the computer. This artificial representation of a runway is superimposed on the visible real runway when the conditions of visibility are satisfactory. It replaces it when visibility is insufficient.
Moreover, the real direction of movement of the aircraft is different from that of its longitudinal axis, especially on account of sidewind and on account of the fact that the aerodynamic forces which keep the aircraft aloft and its transverse accelerations originate from the tilt of the wing with respect to the direction of movement. This is why the direction of real movement of the aircraft is represented on the screen by a particular symbol generally called the velocity vector. This movement symbol represents the direction of the real velocity vector of the aircraft with respect to the ground; it is defined by two orthogonal components which are on the one hand the drift of the aircraft in a horizontal plane and on the other hand the climb or descent slope of the aircraft with respect to the horizontal plane.
The drift is the angle between the track and the heading of the aircraft, where the direction of the track is defined by the horizontal component of the velocity of the aircraft with respect to the ground, whilst the heading is defined by the direction of the horizontal projection of the axis of the aircraft. Additionally, the climb or descent slope of the aircraft with respect to the ground is defined by an angle whose tangent is the ratio of the vertical component to
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Aymeric Bruno
Parus Roger
Lee Benjamin C.
Sextant Avionique
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