Display of Aircraft Altitude

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2015362332-A1
Application number	US-201414761865-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 15, 2014
Priority date	Jan 18, 2013
Publication date	Dec 17, 2015
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for displaying an attitude of an aircraft includes receiving a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle of the aircraft, generating a display image indicating the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle, and displaying the display image on a display device. The display image includes a spherical shell with a track angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a latitude line of the spherical shell and with a pitch angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a longitude line of the spherical shell. Furthermore, the display image includes a graphical aircraft attitude indicator inside the spherical shell rotated with respect to the spherical shell such that the graphical aircraft attitude indicator indicates the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle of the aircraft with respect to the spherical shell.

First claim

1 - 14 . (canceled)

15 . A method for displaying an attitude of an aircraft, the method comprising the steps of:
receiving a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle of the aircraft; generating a display image indicating the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle; and displaying the display image on a display device; wherein the display image comprises:
a spherical shell with a track angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a latitude line of the spherical shell and with a pitch angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a longitude line of the spherical shell, and
a graphical aircraft attitude indicator inside the spherical shell rotated with respect to the spherical shell such that the graphical aircraft attitude indicator indicates the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle of the aircraft with respect to the spherical shell.

16 . The method of claim 15 ,
wherein the graphical aircraft attitude indicator comprises a graphical pitch angle indicator and a graphical roll angle indicator, wherein the graphical pitch angle indicator indicates a point on the spherical shell at the pitch angle and at the track angle corresponding to the pitch angle scale and the track angle scale, and wherein the graphical roll angle indicator indicates the roll angle with a line along a pitch axis defined by a coordinate system of the aircraft attitude indicator rotated by the roll angle, pitch angle and yaw angle.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the graphical aircraft attitude indicator comprises a three-dimensional aircraft model positioned at the center of the spherical shell and rotated with respect to the spherical shell such that the three-dimensional aircraft model has the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle of the aircraft with respect to the spherical shell.

18 . The method of claim 15 ,
wherein a flight path vector of the aircraft is received, and wherein the display image comprises a graphical flight path vector indicator pointing to a point on the spherical shell corresponding to the flight path vector.

19 . The method of 15 , further comprising the acts of:
choosing a virtual camera perspective for generating the display image; and generating the display image with respect to the chosen virtual camera perspective.

20 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the virtual camera perspective is chosen by an operator of the aircraft by entering a command into a control element.

21 . The method of claim 19 , wherein the virtual camera perspective is chosen automatically dependent on the flight state of the aircraft.

22 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the display image comprises at least one gauge with a scale bending around a part of a border of the spherical shell.

23 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising the acts of:
acquiring aircraft attitude data with a sensor system adapted for measuring the attitude of the aircraft; determining the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle from the aircraft attitude data.

24 . A computer-readable comprises a series of instructions, which when executed on at least one processor cause the at least one processor to carry out the steps of:
receiving a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle of the aircraft; generating a display image indicating the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle; and displaying the display image on a display device, wherein the display image includes:
a spherical shell with a track angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a latitude line of the spherical shell and with a pitch angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a longitude line of the spherical shell, and
a graphical aircraft attitude indicator inside the spherical shell rotated with respect to the spherical shell such that the graphical aircraft attitude indicator indicates the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle of the aircraft with respect to the spherical shell.

25 . A display system for displaying an attitude of an aircraft, the display system comprising a controller and a display device, wherein the controller is configured to:
receive a roll angle, a pitch angle and a yaw angle of the aircraft; generate a display image indicating the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle; and display the display image on the display device, wherein the display image comprises:
a spherical shell with a track angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a latitude line of the spherical shell and with a pitch angle scale projected onto the spherical shell along a longitude line of the spherical shell, and
a graphical aircraft attitude indicator inside the spherical shell rotated with respect to the spherical shell such that the graphical aircraft attitude indicator indicates the roll angle, the pitch angle and the yaw angle of the aircraft with respect to the spherical shell.

Assignees

• Airbus Defence & Space Gmbh

Inventors

• Vernaleken Christoph
• Opitz Marco
• Neujahr Harald
• Ferreira Eugenio

Classifications

• B64D45/00

  Aircraft indicators or protectors not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• G01C23/005 Primary

  Flight directors (indicating arrangements specially adapted for rotary gyroscopes G01C19/32) · CPC title

• G01C23/00 Primary

  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 · CPC title