FR2530842A1 - DEVICE FOR DISPLAYING FLIGHT DATA OF AN AIRCRAFT - Google Patents

Abstract

THE INVENTION RELATES TO A DEVICE FOR DISPLAYING FLIGHT DATA FROM A FLIGHT DATA RECORDER 10 PLACED ON BOARD AN AIRCRAFT. THE DEVICE INCLUDES A DATA STORAGE UNIT 34, 36, INPUT MEANS 12 FUNCTIONALLY CONNECTED TO THE LOGGER 10 AND INTENDED TO MODIFY THE FORMAT OF THE DATA FROM THE LATEST BEFORE SENDING THEM TO A CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT 20 WHICH CONVERTS CERTAIN PARTS OF THE DATA SO MODIFIED INTO TECHNICAL UNITS AND WHICH STORES THEM IN THE MEMORIZATION UNIT. A VISUAL DISPLAY UNIT 22, INCLUDING A KEYPAD 28 CONNECTED TO THE CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT, IS INTENDED TO DISPLAY FLIGHT DATA CONVERTED INTO TECHNICAL UNITS. FIELD OF APPLICATION: STUDIES AND ANALYZES OF FLIGHT PARAMETERS OF AIRCRAFT AND OTHER AIRCRAFT.

Description

The invention relates to the field of devices

  display of aircraft flight data, and more particularly

  specifically a flight data display device

  can visually display direct flight data-

  from an aircraft flight data recorder.

  Most commercial aircraft currently flying

  They are equipped with flight data recorders to record various flight parameters of such aircraft, such as altitude, airspeed, heading and engine data. flight data record of an aircraft is to provide flight data for crash analysis, but the flight data recorded on the aircraft has also proved useful,

  in the management of the airlines, to other functions

  including the maintenance and analysis of aircraft incidents, for example in the case of a landing approach resulting in a hard landing or a lap of track With the appearance of the recorders

  modern digital flight data systems capable of

  more than a hundred different flight parameters, the usefulness of data for airline management and maintenance personnel has increased significantly The availability of a large number of flight parameters has improved important way safety, as well as the economy of flight operations by allowing

  to the management to analyze the data: real-flights.

  However, to be useful, this data must be made available to the management services in time.

  timely and usable presentations.

  A review of previous aircraft flight data production processes from a flight data recorder for personnel analysis purposes

  airlines has shown that these processes

  were a number of notable disadvantages in

  general, data from the digital recorder

  as flight data, which are stored in the form of

  bit series, must be converted into a format that can be

  To be used as an input to a large CPU system After the data from the DVR has been reshaped, the mainframe system converts it into appropriate engineering units and this data is then edited under a tubular form or graphed for analysis This method has several disadvantages of which one is

  important time for the production of the data used

  For example, formatting or transcribing data typically takes several hours, and other delays often occur because

  transcription is far from the place of the main computer

  It has also become apparent that the use of the company's main computer can lead to priority problems in cases where the data conversion and tabulation processes are very often in competition with other business functions. executed by the machine, which results in other

deadlines.

  In addition to the delays involved in developing usable data, another disadvantage of current processes is that computers produce

  large amounts of printed information, including

  It takes time for the technical services to do this. Thus, the methods used up to now by airline management services to obtain flight data lack the flexibility to present data in a timely manner, in a form

  best suited to the user and the user

technical staff.

  The invention relates to a device for displaying flight data from an aircraft flight data digital recorder, this device comprising a data storage unit; an input unit for receiving flight data from a data storage unit; a processor for converting selected portions of formatted flight data into engineering units and storing the converted flight data in the storage unit; and a video display unit including a keyboard by which the processor can be operated to select portions of the reshaped flight data for conversion into engineering units.

  flight data and display the converged flight data.

  ties. The invention also relates to the direct display of selected digital flight data from a flight data recorder of an aircraft, using a device which comprises a data storage unit; an input unit; a processor for converting selected portions of flight data into engineering units in response to a synchronization word present in the data, while the flight data from the data source is stored in

  the data storage unit; and a display unit

  chage to display data converted to units

techniques.

  The invention also relates to the direct display of selected flight parameters of an aircraft from

  of a digital flight data recorder of an aircraft

  nave, by means of a display device that includes

  an interface circuit connected to the data logger

  flight data to convert serial flight data into flight data words; a data storage unit for temporarily storing the data words; and a data processor which acts on the interface circuit to introduce serial flight data from the flight data recorder and convert them into a word format, to memorize the data.

  words of flight data-in a first predetermined position

  completed in the data storage unit, in accordance with

  turn flight data words into smaller flight data,

  and to store the reduced data in a second posi-

  in the data storage unit the device further comprising a display unit responsive to the processor for visually displaying the

  reduced flight data stored in the memory unit.

data.

  Another object of the invention is a device for displaying flight data from an aircraft flight data recorder, the display device comprising a source of raw flight data; an interface unit having the function of reshaping the raw flight data; a high-speed RAM; a mass memory; a central processing unit operable to act on the interface unit to load the reconstructed raw data in a first position of the random access memory to convert selected portions of the raw data flight-in technical units and memorize the converted flight data in a second position of the RAM; and a visual display unit having the effect of displaying the converted flight data stored in

  the second position of the RAM.

  The invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings by way of non-limiting example and in which:

  FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of a device

  tif of displaying aircraft flight data according to the invention.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an interface circuit for use with the aircraft flight data display device of FIG. 1; and Fig. 3 is a view of a visual display unit showing an example of graphical display of flight data. FIG. 1 is a simplified general view of a

  preferred embodiment of a device according to the invention.

  for the direct display of selected data,

  relating to the flight behavior of an aircraft and

  The aircraft behavior data relating to factors such as aircraft speed, altitude, vertical acceleration, aircraft pressure

  engines and the attitude of pitch and roll, are

  generated and stored during the flight in an aircraft flight data recorder 10 Some of the recorders

  the most recent flight data, such as

  universal flight data of the "980-4100" type of

  Sundstrand Data Control, are able to memo-

  During a flight time of 25 hours, more than a hundred different flight ego parameters are recorded. In a digital flight data recorder such as that shown at 10, the data are generally stored in the form of serial bits forming blocks which, themselves, are divided into

  four sub-blocks each consisting of 64 words of 12 bits.

  1 _ 5 Data formats stored in the recorders

  flight data are described in the following sections:

  ARINC 573 and 717 published by Aeronautical Radio, Inc., Annapolis, Maryland, EO UO Ao Each sub-block

  represents the value of one second of behavior data.

  In most cases, each of the aircraft

  12-bit words represents a flight parameter of the aircraft

  nef such as altitude or speed relative to the air, some parameters such as vertical acceleration, being recorded several times during intervals of one second and thus appearing in more than one word in a sub-block similarly, certain types of data such as engine speeds are recorded once in each block or once every four seconds. The first word of each subblock consists of a synchronization word that serves both to mark

  the beginning of a sub-block and to identify the sub-block

  block Currently, there are two different formats of

  sub-blocks, according to the manufacture of the charging equipment

  data mounement installed on board the aircraft The binary values of the ARINC 573 synchronization words are indicated below:

FORMAT 1 FORMAT 2

  SUB-BLOCK Binary value Binary value

1 111 000 100 100 001 001 000 111 111

2,000,111 011 010 010 110 111,000

3 111 000 100 101 101 001 000 111

4,000 111,011 011 110,110 I-11,000

  When it is desired to obtain and analyze the flight data contained in a flight data recorder 10, this recorder 10 can itself be connected directly to a reading unit 11 which is associated with

  to a flight data display device of the aircraft

  nave, shown in Figure 1 However, since

  It is often impractical to remove the aircraft from

  In the flight data recorder 10, it may be more convenient to use a copy recorder as indicated in the dotted line box 14 to record the data from the aircraft-mounted recorder 10, then to connect the copy recorder 14,

  as indicated by a line 16, to the reading unit 11.

  Commercially available copy recorders, such as the copy recorder produced by the firm

  Sundstrand Data Control under reference number 981-

  6024-001, are able to record more than 25 hours of flight data in about 30 minutes, which avoids having to get off the aircraft the flight data recorder 10 A function of the unit 11 of reading is to control the flight data recorder 14. For example, in a digital flight data recorder, the reading unit 11 may write a mark on the tape, control the forward or reverse movement of the tape. the back and sequentially run the tracks

  The playback unit 11 also serves as a pre-

  data processor of the flight data recorder 10 or copy recorder 14 by squaring and decoding two-phase signals to produce signals

  of non-return to zero Reading units are available

  in commerce, for example, the reading unit pro-

  by Sundstrand Data Control under the number

981-1218.

  An interface card 12 is connected to the reading unit 11 by means of a data line 18 and is connected to the central processing unit 20 of a mini-computer system, for example of the type " Data General Nova Model 4 S "which is a minicomputer to

  16 bits and which includes an I / O card 21.

  The central processing unit 20 is also connected

  by the input-output card 21 to a display unit 22

  visual display, as indicated by a line 24, this visual display unit preferably comprising a color graphic display terminal comprising a tube

  cathode ray display 26 and keyboard 28.

  In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the color graphics display unit 22 is a color graphic image forming terminal of the type 'AEDS 12' from the firm Advanced Electronic Design, Inc., described in detail. in the AED 5 12 operator's manual, available from Advanced Electronics Design, Inc. and Sunnyvale, California, Eo UO Ao For some O applications it may be desirable to connect a printer / plotter 30, such as

  line 32, to the central processing unit

  20 to produce data tables under one

  printed form or drawn in black and white.

  Another integral part of the display

  The flight data record of an aircraft, as shown in FIG. 1, is the storage unit which, in the preferred embodiment, comprises a high-speed random access memory 34 and a mass memory 36 of FIG. lower speed, which is preferably a disk memory, namely a flexible disk or fixed disk memory As shown in Figure 1, the memory is connected, as indicated by a line 38 of data, to the central unit 20, as is also the case with the mass memory 36 and as indicated by the line 400 In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG.

  is part of the RAM normally equipping the computer

  The organization of the high-speed RAM in the aircraft flight data display device comprises a buffer portion 42 placed in a predetermined position in the random access memory 34 and organized in a random position. first buffer 44 and a second buffer

  46 Each of the buffers 44 and 46 is organized into 16 subsets

  blocks which are each subdivided into 64 words of 16 bits In addition to the buffer, the RAM

  34 high speed includes a set of conversion tables

  to help convert the raw data from

  of the aircraft, from the flight data recorder 10, in data in technical units 48, a buffer 50 of extracted data for temporarily storing selected parts of the raw data of aircraft behavior, extracted buffer 42, and a converted data buffer 52 for temporarily storing aircraft behavior data.

  which have been converted and reduced to technical units.

  As is conventional, the random access memory 34 comprises

  also a predetermined zone 54 for the memo-

  at least part of the computer program

  controlling the central processor 20, and a zone 56 des-

  memorize the system for implementing the

  The mass memory or disk memory 36

  takes part 58 for storing a parameter database, part 60 for storing a graphics database, and parts 62 and 64 for storing the computer program.

  and the system for implementing the computer.

  FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the interface card 12 which, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, is part of a circuit board in the computer. in series and from the flight data recorder or copy recorder 14, are transmitted via the data line 18 and through the reading unit 11 and the data line 18 to a This converter 66 comprises two eight-bit shift registers for converting the serial data, received by line 18, into 12-bit parallel words which are then transmitted by means of a data bus 68 to a data bus. a transceiver of the input-output data bus The serial-parallel converter also comprises a data register for temporarily storing the 12-bit data word long enough to be transmitted to the data carrier. A new 12-bit data word is locked in the data register every twelve sampling cycles which are transmitted by the reading unit 12 on a line 69, the data bus 68 is a 16-bit parallel data bus so as to conform to the 16-bit data system of the processing CPU and, therefore, the four most significant bits of each word of the

  data applied to the bus 68 are set to zero.

  2, the transceiver 70 of the output data bus is connected to a data bus 71 for transmitting data to the central processing unit 20 or the high-speed random access memory 34, shown in Figure 1, through the

  I / O card 21 A sync word detector 74

  chronization is also connected to the serial / parallel converter 66 by means of a data bus 72 of

  12 bits The sync word detector 74 includes

  takes four 12-bit data registers to hold the four requested synchronization words,

  as well as four comparator circuits

  to generate signals on two lines 76 and 78 to indicate which of the four synchronization words has been detected. A status word register 80 is connected to the lines 76 and 78. The state word register 80 is connected. by means of two lines 82 and 84 of control to

  an interrupt control circuit 86.

  In addition to the state word register 80, a word / bit counter circuit 88 is connected to the controller 86.

  interrupted by means of two lines 90 and 92 of

  Means and a line 94 of clock signals The word / bit counter 88 receives the sampling signal by a line 96, this signal representing each bit received by

  the serial / parallel converter 66 and originating, by the -

  line 18, of the flight data recorder 10 or the copy recorder 14 Thus, the function of the word / bit counter 88 is to count the number of data bits received by the interface card of the FIG. 2 and to transmit the appropriate control signals to the interrupt controller 86, together with the clock signal which increments a word counter which is part of the word / bit counter 88. Furthermore, this counter 88 contains a register of the words. state containing accounts of

words / bits accumulated by sub-block.

  The interface board of FIG. 2 also includes a data channel controller 98 operably connected to the serial / parallel converter 66.

  by means of a control line 100, and to the central unit

  tral 20 by means of control lines 102 and 103. The interface circuit of FIG. 2 also comprises a register 104 of command words which is

  connected either to the copying recorder 14 or to the

  registrar 10 of flight data by means of lines 106

  of control The recorder 104 of command lines cons-

  is a means for controlling the reading unit 11- Information is transmitted from the central unit

  the data bus and through the data bus.

  the transceiver of the input data bus-

  output, to the data channel controller 98, to the synchronization word detector 74 and to the control word register 104, by means of a data bus 108. It should also be noted that the interrupt controller 86, the register 80 of status words and the data channel controller 98 are connected to the data bus 68,

  as well as the series / parallel converter circuit 66.

  This converter 66 and the state word register 80 are also connected by means of control lines to the control word register 104, respectively, by control lines 110 and 112. Similarly, the word / bit counter 88 is connected to the data channel controller 98 by means of a line 114 of

  clock signals, and the sync word detector 74

  Chronization is connected to interrupt controller 86

  by means of a control line 119

  are produced by the 86 Controller of

  ruption and are transmitted directly to the central processing unit via the 116-command line

  detailed design criteria, concerning the

  The interface card 12 with the preferred central processing unit is given in the book 'Users' Manual Interface Designer' s Reference, Nova and Eclipse L A Computers ", publication number 014-000629-00.

  from Data General Corporation.

  The method of producing a visual display of flight data of an aircraft, from the flight data recorder, on the visual display unit 22 begins with the initialization of the interface circuit 12

  by the central processing unit 20 of FIG.

  Under the control of this CPU 20, resulting from the logic program stored in the program memory 54, the appropriate synchronization words are transmitted by the data bus 71 to the interface card of FIG. 2 and by means of the bus. 108 output data

  to the registers of the synchronization word detector 74.

  An internal word address, indicated by the position of the first word in the first buffer 42 of the random access memory

  34 at high speed, where the data must be stored

  Aircraft flight that have been converted into 12-bit words by the serial / parallel converter 66, is similarly transmitted by the input data bus 71. This address is stored in a register belonging to the controller 98 of FIG. DATA CHANNELS To establish a data path to the CPU 20 and the memory 34, a data channel request signal is transmitted from the data channel controller 98 via line 102 to the CPU. 20 and the reception is acknowledged by a signal applied to the line 103 After the synchronization word detector 74 has been initialized by the appropriate synchronization words, a start signal is transmitted from the command word register 104, by the lines 106, to the reading unit 11, then by means of a command line 117, or to the recorder 14 of a copy,

  either to the data recorder 10, according to the record

  connected to the reading unit 11.

  When the start signal has been received, the record

  flight data recorder 10 or copying recorder 14 begins transmitting to the serial converter /

  parallel 66 the flight parameter data by the in-

  At the same time, during the production at 66 of each 12-bit parallel word, line 114 is sampled to indicate that a word has been formed. Line 102 is sampled to request access. to the data channel After the return of the acknowledgment signal of data channels 103 from the processing central unit 20, the parallel word is transmitted to the buffer 42 via line 68 and

  through the unit 70 This para-

  flight meter, which has been converted to the format of a 12-bit word, is transmitted via line 72 to synchronization word detector 74

  and when any of the four sync words

  was detected for detector 74, a signal

  synchronization interrupt is produced and trans-

  put by a line 119 to the interrupter controller 86.

  At the same time, the particular synchronization word is identified by the status tots register 80 from the signals present on the lines 76 and 78 which serve to identify the particular synchronization word found by the synchronization word detector A. from the information contained in the state word register 80, the central processing unit 20 calculates the address, in the memory, o the particular sub-block of data, as identified by the synchronization word , should be stored in the buffer 44 or 46 of the high-speed RAM 34, and this address is transmitted to the address register in the data channel controller 98. For example, if the first detected synchronization word represents the third sub-block, the address of

  internal memory calculated by the central processing unit

  20 is the beginning of the "2" sub-block as indicated in

the buffer 44.

  Once a synchronization word has been iden-

  tified by the synchronization word detector 74, the

  interface card in Figure 2 then begins to trans-

  directly deriving the raw and synchronous flight parameter data by means of the I / O data bus transceiver 70 via the data bus 71 and through an assigned data channel directly at the positions in the buffer memory 42 and indicated by the address contained in the address register of the data channel controller 98 Whenever the word / bit counter 88 detects 12 bits, the clock signal is applied on line 114, which increments the address of the word in the data channel controller-98 word register, and thus results in placing the next data word in the next word of the buffers When all the sub-blocks of the buffer 42 are loaded, a count of the sub-blocks is maintained by the central processing unit 20 in a counter 120 forming part of the random access memory 34. When the last sub-block "15 "from the second buffer 46 has been loaded, the central processing unit 20 acts on the device so that it starts

  to write the data in the first buffer 44 eh appli-

  the address of the first word in this buffer to the data channel controller In this way, only a limited portion of the RAM is required for the processing of the flight data.

  Flight parameter data is transmitted automatically

  directly to buffer 42, the unit

  processing center 20 is free to start

  the raw data of flight parameters, contained in the buffer units, in technical units such as

  meters, kilometers / hours or degrees

  expensive by the visual display unit 22.

  One of the main functions of the word counter forming part of the word / bit counter 88 is to count the number of data words received since the

  detection of the last synchronization word by the detection

  When the count reaches 63, a clock signal produced on line 94 indicates that the last data word of a sub-block is about to be received. This has the effect of placing the interface card in synchronization search mode When the next synchronization word is detected by the detector 74, the counter and bit counters of the counter 88 are delivered

to zero -

  One of the functions of the word / bit counter 88 is to count the number of data bits received by the serial / parallel converter 66 In the case where 65 words were received by the converter 66 and no synchronization word n has been detected by the detector 74, an overflow signal is fed into the interrupt controller 86 via the line 92, so that the central processing unit 20 interrupts the conversion process and calculates an address in the buffer on the basis of an assumption of the nature of the flight data received and the position where this data should be placed in the buffer memory 42. This memory address is then transmitted to the address register located in the channel controller 98. In addition, the central processing unit causes the positioning of error indicators in the buffer memory, indicating that this particular flight data, loaded in the buffer memory, can be set. in question or may be wrong In addition, the central unit

  processing produces the appropriate synchronization words

  It is thus possible to continue loading flight behavior data into the memory to be stored in the buffer 42 for data that has been received without the synchronization word being detected by the detector 74. buffer 42 and make this data available to the display unit 22, even though no synchronization word has been detected, so that no valid flight behavior data is lost solely by the makes the possibility of an error in the synchronization word contained in

the data.

  Before the data conversion process

  can take place, usually during initialization

  This is usually done by an operator who uses the keypad 28 of the visual display unit when the parameters and appropriate units of flight data have been selected. chosen, this information is transmitted by

  the visual display unit 22 to the central processing unit

  which then causes the transmission of the

  meters, from the parameter data base 58, from the mass memory 36 to the conversion tables 48 in the random access memory 34.

  When initialization is complete, para-

  selected flight meters, e.g. airspeed or altitude, are removed from the raw flight behavior data contained in the buffer 42 and are placed in the extracted data buffer 50. This process only begins after an interruption has been

  applied on line 116 by the interception controller 86

  ruption so that a complete sub-block is-identified and

  memorized in the first appropriate position of the first.

  buffer 44, and it is possible to ensure that the words appro-

  data from this first sub-block loaded in the buffer memory 44 are available for the loading in the buffer 50 of data extracted in particular after a complete sub-block of data has

  loaded into the first buffer 44; informa-

  tion contained in the conversion tables 48 is used to determine the position of words in the sub-block and the data bits to be accessed in the word

  to extract the parts of the raw data that represent

  feel the chosen value of a flight parameter This rawextraite data is then placed in the buffer 50 of extracted data The conversion of a raw data

  in a datum which is reduced to the appropriate technical units

  This occurs after all selected parameters have been transferred from the sub-block to the buffer 44. Each flight parameter is associated with a parameter code contained in the conversion tables 48 and determining the specific process for converting the parameters.

  raw flight data in reduced technical units appro-

  to display on the visual display unit.

  The processor 20 converts interesting flight parameters, from raw data values, into engineering units through the use of process data.

  conversion governed by the parameter type code.

  In the conversion process, the device sequentially compares the table of requested parameter types

  to his own table of possible types of parameters.

  that a concordance is found between the tables, the

  positive reacts in order to apply the particular process

  conversion for the corresponding type of parameter.

  Once the raw data is converted to a final technical unit value, it is stored in the

  buffer 52 of converted data and a process of verifying

  exceeding the maximum / minimum limit,

  if requested during initialization, is executed.

  This process assigns maximum or minimum values to pre-defined flight parameters such as altitude or airspeed, so that these values are exceeded by the actual-data.

  de-vol, an indication may be displayed in a

  if it is noticeable on the cathode ray tube 26 of the unit

22 visual display.

  All parameters (excluding the binary coded decimal parameters and discrete parameters) defined in the parameter data base 58 can include, with their particular proportionality factor and their offset, a look-up table comprising 2 to 40 pairs

* Data values and corresponding technical units

  In general, after the offset and the proportionality factor have been applied to the raw data value, resulting in the intermediate technical units, a linear interpolation is performed in the look-up table if the latter exists. conversion is the following D raw data g offset and proportionality factor intermediate result final technical units of the table to be consulted

  In the detailed description of the process of

  conversion, the following abbreviations are used EU final calculated technical units IR intermediate result after one or more calculation steps Rl least significant word of the raw data R 2 t most significant word of the raw data R 3 third word of the data gross (pneumatic altitude conversion algorithm index) SD synchronous angle in degrees FD synchronous angle fine in degrees CD coarse synchronous angle in degrees' parameter type A 1 (analog parameter from a single data word) IR = (R 1 shift) * proportionality factor EU = IR: table lookup parameter type: A 2 (analog parameter from two data words)

IR = (R 2 * 4096) + R 1

  IR = (IR offset) * EU = IR factor: table lookup parameter type: D 1 (numeric parameter (with sign) unique word of data) (the sign of a second data word) IR = (+ / -) IR = IR (IR offset) * EU = IR factor: table lookup parameter type: D 2 (numeric parameter (with sign) two data words) proportionality from a can come proportionality from

  (the sign must come from a second word of

born)

IR = (R 2 * 4096) + R 1

IR = (+/-) IR

  EU = IR: table lookup parameter type: Xl (discrete parameter from a single word of

data) -

EU = R 1

  parameter type: X 2 (discrete parameter from two data words)

EU = (R 2 * 2) + R 1

type of parameter: G 2-

  (in GMT code as a binary coded decimal value in two words of data) EU = HH: MM (hours and minutes converted from go binary coded decimal characters to ASCII characters) parameter type H 1 linear synchronization (Hamilton standard ) from a single word of data) SD = R 1: linear synchronous conversion IR = (SD shift) * proportionality factor EU = IR: table lookup parameter type: H 2 (linear synchronization (Hamilton standard) to from two data words (altitude)) CD = R 2: linear synchronous conversion FD = R 1: linear synchronous conversion if CD is greater than or equal to 350, then CD = CD-360

  IR = ((CD * 375) (FD * 13.889)) / 5000

  IR = IR rounded to the nearest integer value

IR = (FD * 13.889) + (IR * 5000)

  IR = (IR offset) e proportionality factor EU = IR table lookup parameter type: T 1 (nonlinear synchronization) (Teledyne) from a single data word) SD = R 1: nonlinear synchronous IR conversion = (SD offset) * proportionality factor EU = IR: table lookup T 2 nonlinear synchronization Qn (Teledyne) from two data words (altftude)} CD = R 2: nonlinear synchronous conversion FD = R 1: nonlinear synchronous conversion if CD is greater than or equal to 350, then CD = CD-360

  IR = ((CD * 375) (FD * 13.889)) / 5000

  IR = IR rounded to the nearest integer value

IR = (FD * 13.889) + (IR * 5000)

  IR = (IR offset) * proportionality factor EU = IR table lookup parameter type: Pl

  (Pneumatic parameter from a single word of

  (airspeed compared to -air UFDR)) IR = R 1 * -0.0025: voltage

  IR = (IR * proportionality factor) -

offset: PSID

IR = IR * 144000: PSFD * 1000

  IR = IR: interpolation from pressure as a function of velocity table with respect to air EU = IR: table lookup parameter type: P 3 (pneumatic parameter from three data words) (altitude- pneumatic UFDR)) on the value of R 3 (conversion algorithm index)

  Index O determination of factors -

-calibration of transduc-

  from the table Index 1 determination of factors

transducers

  from index table Indices 2 to 7 determination of transducer calibration factors from table O conversion algorithm for indices O to 7: TT = R 2 / 10,2: transducer temperature OT =: factor interpolated calibration from the temperature-indexed table

TT

  KT =: Interpolated calibration factor from the table indexed by TT temperature

IR = (4096 R 1) * 0.0025

IR = (IR OT) / (0.414 KT)

IR = (IR offset: PSIA)

IR = IR * 144000.0: PSFA * 1000

  IR = IR: interpolated value from the pressure table as a function of altitude EU = IR: table lookup After the flight data parameters have

  have been reduced or proportionate in the appropriate technical units.

  They are stored in the converted data buffer 52. The information contained in the converted data buffer 52 is then transformed by the central processing unit into a format compatible with the particular video display unit 22. to be

  displayed directly on the cathode ray tube 26.

  It should also be noted that this information may be transmitted directly by a line 32 to the printer / plotter 30 to form a list of tables or a flight parameter data plot of the aircraft, if

this is desired.

  Figure 3 gives an illustration of the

  FIG. 1 is a front view of the visual display unit 22 which displays a representative example of a graphical representation of flight data projected onto the flight tube. FIG. In this example, four flight parameters altitude, air speed, heading and vertical acceleration, are plotted as a function of time given in seconds on the lower horizontal axis 122, in the case of an aircraft undergoing take-off The dashed line 124 represents the altitude of the aircraft; the dashed line 126 at two points represents the speed with respect to the air; the single-point mixed line 128 represents the magnetic heading, and the solid line 130 represents the vertical acceleration. The values of the flight parameters are displayed on a single point.

  segmented grid represented by lines 132 and 134.

  Since the preferred visual display unit 22 is a color graphic display terminal, the various parts of the display are produced in color so, for example, the altitude line 124 is yellow; the speed line 126 relative to the air is green; the heading line 128 is light blue, and the vertical acceleration line 130 is red, lines 132 and 134

  of the segmented grid being dark blue In this case,

  particular, the display presented by the tube 26 spokes

  cathodes is produced at the rate of one segment or one

  image at a time and scrolls to the left CPU 20 produces data worth

  second at a time from the data buffer 52

  vertices, so that the visual display unit 22 can

  produce the image element display by image element.

  Then, using the keyboard 28, the operator can

  scroll the display on the cathode ray tube 26

  to the right or to the left, in order to see

the desired information.

  Since the visual display unit 22 serves both to initialize and control the device by means of the keyboard 28, by means of which signals are transmitted to the central processing unit 20 by the line

  136, an operator can define the flight parameters

  and may trigger the entry of flight data,

  from the flight data recorder 10 or the

  copying recorder 14, in the device, using the keyboard 28 In the preferred embodiment,

  it is possible to display up to eight

  different flight meters, at the same time as two separate parameters The operator also has the possibility of controlling the copy recorder 14 by means of the keyboard 28 by commanding him to start, stop, choose a particular track, interrupt or continue by means of the control functions transmitted through the central processing unit 20 and the reading unit 11 Moreover, since the preferred visual display unit has a possibility to produce a zoom effect, the operator can enlarge,

  or focus on any particular parameter

  bind flying that interests him, using the commands

which he has on the keyboard 28.

  It goes without saying that many modifications can be made to the device described and shown

  without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims (8)

  1 Device for displaying flight data at   from a flight data recorder (10) of an aircraft   nave, characterized in that it comprises a data storage unit (34), input means (12) operably connected to a flight data source and the data storage unit for transferring data. fit and   storing the flight data in said memory unit   processing means (20) connected   access to the input and the memory unit   sation for converting selected portions of the formatted flight data into engineering units, and storing said converted flight data in said storage unit, and a video display unit (22) including a keyboard ( 28) operatively connected to the processor to act on the processor to select said portion of the flight data reshaped for   convert it into technical units and to display the- said converted flight data.   2 Apparatus for the direct display of flight data from a flight data recorder (10) of an aircraft, characterized in that it comprises means   (34) for storing data, means (12) for input-   operatively connected to a flight data source and the data storage means for storing   flight data that includes synchronization words   in said data storage means, a processor (20) operatively connected to the input means and the data storage imies to convert selected portions of the flight data into   technical units in response to one of the sync words   while flight data from said data source are stored in said data source.   means for memorizing data, and display means   chage (22) operably connected to the processor to display said selected portions of flight data converted into technical units.   3 Device according to claim 2, characterized   characterized in that the processor comprises an element (21) which acts on the input means for storing the flight data in said data storage means -   4 Device according to claim 3, characterized   characterized in that the input means comprise an element   (11) intended to modify the format of the flight data pro-   from the flight data recorder of an aircraft to give such data a format compatible with   the data storage means.   Device according to claim 3, characterized   in that the input means comprise a detection   controller (74) for detecting synchronization words   is and produce a synchronization signal.   6.Device according to claim 5, characterized   in that the processor responds to the sync signal   chronization by storing the flight data in a   first predetermined position in the means of data.   Apparatus according to claim 6, characterized   in that the processor triggers said conversion   stored flight data in said predetermined position.   in response to said synchronization signal.   8 Device according to claim 7, characterized   characterized in that the processor includes an element for storing the converted portions of flight data in   a second predetermined position of said memory means data.   9 Device according to any one of the   2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, characterized in that the processor responds to a signal from the display means for initiating a storing of the flight data from the flight data source, in   said data storage means.   Device for the direct display of selected aircraft flight data from an aircraft flight data recorder (10), characterized in that it comprises an interface (12) operably connected to a flight data recorder flight data for converting serial flight data from said recorder into flight data words, means (34) for temporary storage of the data words, a processor (20) operably connected to the data words; the interface and the data storage means for acting on this interface to receive said serial flight data from the flight data recorder, and   to produce said flight data words by conver-   of said serial flight data, the processor also being for storing the flight data words in a first predetermined position of the data storage means, for converting data of   selected flights, from said data words, as data   reduced flight data, and storing the reduced flight data in a second predetermined position of the   means for storing data, the device comprises   in addition, display means (22) connected   to the processor to visually display the reduced flight data stored in said second predetermined position.   Apparatus for displaying flight data from a flight data recorder (10) of an aircraft, characterized in that it comprises a source (10) of raw data of flight, a circuit (12) interface functionally connected to the raw flight data source and having the function of reshaping this raw flight data, a high-speed random access memory (34), a mass memory <36), a central processing unit (20) operatively connected to the interface circuit, the high-speed random access memory and the mass memory and operative to act on the interface circuit to load the raw data of   flight, fitness, in a first predetermined position   completed high-speed RAM, to convert selected parts of raw data-flight, re-shaped, into technical units and to memorize said   flight data converted to a second position pre-   of high-speed random access memory, the   positive also comprising a visual display unit (22) operatively connected to the central processing unit and operative to display the data   de-vol converted, stored in said second posi- predetermined level.