Vertical situation display terrain/waypoint swath, range to target speed, and blended airplane reference

Abstract

A flight information display for the flight deck of an aircraft showing a pictorial side view of the flight path or the area directly in front of the aircraft area having a selected distance of at least 0.5 nautical miles, comprising (a) a pictorial representation to scale of the profile of the highest elevations of a swath of terrain along said path or area, (b) an icon positioned on the left or right side of the display representing the aircraft, the altitude of which is to scale with the height of the terrain, and (c) an altitude reference scale; wherein the width of the swath is at least 0.1 nautical miles and no greater than the distance of the minimum accuracy of the means for determining the aircraft's location.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 019,459 filed Dec. 26, 2001, which is a U.S. national phase of PCT application PCT / US00 / 20451, which claims priority from U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 146,489, filed Jul. 30, 1999, titled Vertical Situation Display Terrain / Waypoint Swath, Range to Target Speed, and Blended Airplane Reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] In modern flight decks, the primary flight information display (PFD) and the navigation display (ND) are the key displays available for providing situational awareness to the pilot. Although the primary flight information display provides aircraft attitude and performance information through the attitude direction indicator (ADI), airspeed tape, heading and track indicator, and vertical speed indicator (VSI), the performance information is not shown in relation to the aircraft's surroundings. The navigation display provides fa...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention is a flight information display for the flight deck of an aircraft that shows a pictorial side view of the flight path or the area directly in front of the aircraft. The display includes a pictorial representation of the highest elevations of a swath of terrain along the flight path, an icon representing the aircraft, and an altitude reference scale. The display also shows the current projected path of descent for the aircraft and the location at which the aircraft will reach a target speed based on its current speed and acceleration. The display is designed to provide intuitive information to the pilot without requiring excessive analysis or interpretation, and conforms to standard graphical depictions used on approachcharts and other places in the flight deck. The technical effect of the invention is to assist the pilot in avoiding terrain collisions and making more efficient and safe landing approaches.

Problems solved by technology

Due to the display shading limitations and the nature of a top down view display, the contour map can only provide a general awareness of the surrounding terrain height.

Even with these vertical situational awareness features on the navigation display, the information still requires some interpretation, and approach and landing accidents continue to occur.

The pilot may not be able to perform an optimal vertical maneuver if the pilot is not aware of the height of the surrounding terrain.

However, the display changes with slight adjustments to the direction of the aircraft, making it appear “noisy”.

Also, navigational instruments for determining the exact position of an aircraft usually have some degree of error.

For example, if the aircraft's automated navigational equipment is only accurate to within 10 nautical miles of the exact location of the aircraft, and the topography display only shows a “line” of topography directly in front of where the aircraft instruments indicate the aircraft is located, the topography display will be not be accurate as to the topography directly in front of the aircraft if the aircraft's exact position is actually 9.5 nautical miles from the location indicated by the navigation equipment.

When the aircraft is not on this ideal path, the flight deck instruments do not indicate the degree of correction required to return the aircraft to the correct descent path.

If the pilot under- or overcorrects the descent angle and cannot position the aircraft onto a suitable landing approach path in a short period of time, the pilot may have to make a decision to abort the landing, circle, and begin another landing approach.

These calculations and estimations may not be very precise and may distract the pilot from performing other duties connected with flying the aircraft and maintaining an accurate mental picture of the situation.

If the reference aircraft symbol on a vertical profile display (VPD) is fixed near the bottom of the display and the aircraft is in a descent, the resolution of the display for that range of altitudes will be insufficient to provide the pilot with any increased awareness of the terrain the aircraft is approaching.

Similarly if the aircraft symbol is fixed at the top of the display and the aircraft is climbing, resolution will be insufficient to increase the pilot's awareness of the airplane's relationship with the terrain ahead.

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