Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08G—TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
  • G08G5/00—Traffic control systems for aircraft, e.g. air-traffic control [ATC]
  • G08G5/0017—Arrangements for implementing traffic-related aircraft activities, e.g. arrangements for generating, displaying, acquiring or managing traffic information
  • G08G5/0021—Arrangements for implementing traffic-related aircraft activities, e.g. arrangements for generating, displaying, acquiring or managing traffic information located in the aircraft
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
  • G01C—MEASURING DISTANCES, LEVELS OR BEARINGS; SURVEYING; NAVIGATION; GYROSCOPIC INSTRUMENTS; PHOTOGRAMMETRY OR VIDEOGRAMMETRY
  • G01C23/00—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
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G08—SIGNALLING
  • G08G—TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS
  • G08G5/00—Traffic control systems for aircraft, e.g. air-traffic control [ATC]
  • G08G5/0047—Navigation or guidance aids for a single aircraft
  • G08G5/0052—Navigation or guidance aids for a single aircraft for cruising

Definitions

• the present invention relates to the configuration, by the crew of an aircraft, of an on-board flight management system.
• the flight equipment of an aircraft is divided into three levels according to their positions in the chain of actuation of the moving planes and the engines.
• the first level consists of flight controls acting directly on the actuators of the moving planes and the motors. They allow manual piloting.
• the second level consists of the automatic pilot and / or flight director who act on the flight controls, directly for the automatic pilot and through the pilot for the flight director, and which allow the pilot to enslave the aerodyne on a quantity linked to the trajectory of the aerodyne: attitude, course, slope, route, altitude, speed, deviations from routes, etc.
• the third level consists of the route management calculator which acts on the automatic pilot and / or flight director and which allows the pilot to draw a flight plan and to follow more or less automatic the adopted flight plan.
• the crew acts directly on the flight controls and dialogues with the autopilot and / or flight director and with the flight management computer via four man-machine interfaces: - a primary PFD piloting screen ( acronym from Anglo-Saxon: "Primary Flight Display”).
• This PFD screen is often referred to as an artificial horizon. It gives indications on the attitude of the aircraft with respect to a landmark and on other important flight parameters such as altitude, climb speed, etc.,
• an ND navigation screen (acronym from Anglo-Saxon: “Navigation Display”) which provides information on the route followed by the aircraft, by displaying a more or less detailed aerial map of the region overflown, - a panel of control with switches, buttons, displays and LEDs called CP (acronym from the Anglo-Saxon: “Module Control Panel”) or FCU (acronym from the Anglo-Saxon: “Flight Control Unit”).
• CP acronym from the Anglo-Saxon: “Module Control Panel”
• FCU acronym from the Anglo-Saxon: “Flight Control Unit”
• MCP / FCU control generally placed in a strip at the base of the cockpit windshield favors ease of use. It is used to control the autopilot and / or flight director, as well as to control how the flight management computer acts on the autopilot and / or flight director. As it favors ease of use, it only allows the selection and configuration of the main operating modes of the autopilot and / or flight director: attitude, course, slope, altitude, speed maintenance , route or deviation from a route, etc. and
• MCD keyboard and screen console
• This MCD console resembles a calculator or an electronic diary. It is usually placed on the central armrest of a cockpit with two cockpits side by side. It favors fine control and is shared between the autopilot and / or flight director, the flight computer and more generally all the on-board equipment requiring settings, equipment which it allows to control and adjust in detail. The crew uses it to supply, to the flight management computer, the milestones it needs to draw the flight plan.
• the tracking of a flight plan by a flight management computer is done from a trajectory skeleton made up of turning points associated with various constraints of heading, altitude, speed, etc., introduced in a way explicit or implicit by the crew using the MCD console.
• the flight management calculator builds a trajectory to follow, from a chain of segments connecting two by two the turning points from the starting point to the arrival point and transitions in an arc at the turning points for the course changes between segments.
• navigation procedures In areas with heavy air traffic and in the vicinity of airports, air traffic is subject to regulations known as navigation procedures, limiting the possibilities of tracing a trajectory and how to travel it. There are usually three categories of navigation procedures:
• NavDB acronym for Anglo-Saxon: “Navigation Database”
• the crew's introduction of flight plan tracking data into the flight management computer, via the MCD console, can be done more or less globally. It can consist of:
• the present invention aims to facilitate for crews, the choice of navigation procedures that they are required to make when plotting a flight plan by a flight management computer.
• flight management system for aircraft comprising a flight management computer coupled to a navigation database, a navigation screen and a display and data entry console, the computer.
• flight management system ensuring the tracing of a flight plan from data entered by means of the display and data entry console, the navigation database containing the tracing elements necessary for the flight management computer flight to plot parts of a flight plan satisfying various navigation procedures which the aircraft may have to comply with and the display and data entry console referring to flight procedures
• This display, on the navigation screen, of the plot of the part of the flight plan corresponding to a navigation procedure, indexed by the identifier of the navigation procedure doubling a mention of the identifier of the navigation procedure on the display of the data entry and display console allows the crew, who knows the general orientation of the flight plan they are drawing, to appreciate at a glance the most suitable navigation procedure among those proposed on the display of the MCD console.
• the flight management computer constructs the flight plan parts, which correspond to navigation procedures and which it displays on the navigation screen, from the tracking elements contained in the navigation database.
• plots of parts of the flight plan which correspond to navigation procedures and which are displayed on the navigation screen are extracted from an image bank.
• FIG. 1 represents the usual configuration of a flight management system for an aircraft
• FIG. 2 shows a display on a MCD console offering a choice from several SID type navigation procedures and the image displayed correspondingly on the ND navigation screen by a flight management system according to the invention.
• an on-board flight management system comprises an FMS flight management computer 10.
• the latter exchanges various information with a navigation database 11 and with other equipment 12 of the aircraft, and communicates with the crew of the aircraft via man-machine interfaces among which there are mainly:
• an FCU 13 control panel with switches, buttons, displays and indicators allowing the selection and the configuration of the main operating modes of the FMS 10 computer and of the autopilot and / or flight director on which the FMS 10 computer acts but which n is not shown so as not to overload the figurel unnecessarily, a primary piloting screen PFD 14 used to display an artificial horizon, and flight parameters such as the altitude of the aircraft, its attitude, its speed vector, a guidance mode indication, etc.,
• an ND 15 navigation screen to display maps, flight plan, etc.
• an MCD display and data input console 16 having a keyboard and a screen surrounded by function keys, and constituting the main instrument for dialogue with the FMS computer 10.
• the FMS computer 10 assists the crew of an aircraft in the definition of the flight plan before take-off and in the monitoring of the flight plan from take-off to landing. Its assistance in defining the flight plan consists in simplifying for the crew, the tracing, in the horizontal and vertical planes, of the trajectory that the aircraft will have to follow to fulfill its mission by bringing back for the crew this tracing operation , on the sole definition of a trajectory skeleton formed by a succession of turning points associated with altitude, speed, heading or other constraints.
• the crew When preparing the flight plan, the crew enters the FMS computer 10, by means of the MCD console 16, explicitly or implicitly, the geographic coordinates of the turning points and the constraints associated with them, and obtains from the FMS computer 10 a flight plan constructed from a chain of segments connecting two by two the turning points from the starting point to the destination point and arcs of a circle ensuring the course transitions between segments at level turning points, flight plan which is displayed on the ND 15 navigation screen to allow the crew to check its relevance.
• the MCD 16 console allows the crew to introduce the flight plan tracing data into the FMS 10 computer, either at the basic level of the turning points and associated constraints, or at the intermediate level of the navigation procedures which make it possible to enter into the FMS computer 10 sequences of tracing data relating to portions of the flight plan stored in the navigation database NavDB 11, that is to say again, at the global level of the flight plan itself by calling on the data tracking of a flight plan already memorized.
• a navigation procedure entry program When the crew wishes to introduce a navigation procedure into the tracking data of a flight plan, they activate, by actuating the appropriate button or buttons of the MCD console 16, a navigation procedure entry program.
• This data entry program requires to be informed about the geographical location of the point of implementation of the navigation procedure, airport, beacon location, landmark duly mentioned on an aerial map, etc., more generally, any point corresponding to the Anglo-Saxon qualification of "waypoint" and on the type of navigation procedure concerned then proposes to the display of the MCD 16 console the names of the navigation procedures listed in the NavDB 11 navigation database having the desired type and an application area covering the point of implementation indicated by the crew.
• FIG. 2 illustrates, in a square 20, the display of the MCD console 16 while the crew seeks to introduce into the flight plan tracking data a SID type navigation procedure defining a take-off route from the runway 5 from LFBD airport (Bordeaux Mérignac).
• This display shows four possible navigation procedures, named respectively, CGC3B, ENSA3B, ROYA3B, SAU3B.
• Each of these navigation procedures defines a path authorized by air regulations to leave the vicinity of LFBD airport.
• the CGC3B navigation procedure defines a takeoff trajectory towards the CGC Cognac beacon located north of the Bordeaux Mérignac LFBD airport.
• the ENSA3B procedure defines a takeoff trajectory towards the ENSAC waypoint located south of the Bordeaux Mérignac LFBD airport.
• the ROYA3B navigation procedure defines a take-off trajectory towards the town of Royan located north northwest of the Bordeaux Merignac LFBD airport.
• the SAU3B navigation procedure defines a take-off route in the direction of the Sauveterre SAU beacon located southeast of the Bordeaux Mérignac LFBD airport.
• ND 15 navigation screen when the flight plan tracing data is entered by the crew to display the flight plan portions corresponding to the navigation procedures whose names appear on the display. of the MCD console 16, by indexing these portions of the flight plan by the names of the navigation procedures to which they correspond as shown in FIG. 2 in a circle 30 representing the outline of the navigation screen ND 15.
• the crew is offered a choice from several navigation procedures on the display of the MCDU console 16; they can turn to the navigation screen ND 15 (circle 30 in FIG.
• the FMS computer 10 To perform this display on the ND 15 navigation screen, the FMS computer 10 must know the choices of navigation procedures displayed by the MCD console 16. From this knowledge that it already has if it is in charge of the program tracking data entry or communicated to it by the MCD 16 console if the latter has mastery of the tracking data entry program, the FMS computer 10 will search the NavDB 11 on-board navigation data base for the elements tracing corresponding to each navigation procedure
• plots of the flight plan portions corresponding to the different navigation procedures listed in the on-board navigation data base NavDB 11 can be stored in an on-board image bank which the FMS computer 10 comes to consult as necessary. .

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Radar, Positioning & Navigation (AREA)
• Remote Sensing (AREA)
• Aviation & Aerospace Engineering (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Navigation (AREA)
• Traffic Control Systems (AREA)

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Country Status (5)

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Citations (1)

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• 2003
  • 2003-03-28 FR FR0303894A patent/FR2853064B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2004
  • 2004-02-20 EP EP04713087A patent/EP1616150A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2004-02-20 US US10/544,839 patent/US7493196B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2004-02-20 WO PCT/EP2004/050179 patent/WO2004085964A1/fr not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 2004-02-20 CA CA002515207A patent/CA2515207A1/fr not_active Abandoned

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Non-Patent Citations (1)

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