Method and device for calculating a flight plan of an aircraft in a runway approach phase

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9368036-B2
Application number	US-201414316666-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2014
Priority date	Jun 28, 2013
Publication date	Jun 14, 2016
Grant date	Jun 14, 2016

Abstract

A method for calculating a flight plan used by a flight management system of an aircraft in a runway approach phase comprises: loading an initial procedure ending at a first end point not corresponding to a threshold of the runway and a first associated missed approach procedure; determining an additional procedure and a second associated missed approach procedure; concatenating the initial procedure and the additional procedure in order to generate a continuous concatenated flight plan comprising the initial procedure, the first missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the second missed approach procedure; loading the concatenated flight plan into an active flight plan; selecting a second procedure from a set comprising the first missed approach procedure and the additional procedure; activating the selected second procedure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for calculating a flight plan used by a flight management system of an aircraft in a runway approach phase, said flight management system comprising a navigation database comprising at least one stored additional procedure ending at a threshold of the runway and at least one associated additional missed approach procedure, the method comprising the steps:
loading an initial procedure ending at a first end point not corresponding to the threshold of the runway and a first associated missed approach procedure,
determining an additional procedure from among the at least one additional procedure stored in the navigation database and a second associated missed approach procedure,
concatenating the initial procedure and the additional procedure in order to generate a continuous concatenated flight plan comprising the initial procedure, the first missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the second missed approach procedure,
loading the concatenated flight plan into an active flight plan,
selecting a second procedure from a set comprising the first missed approach procedure and the additional procedure, and
activating the selected second procedure, and
graphically displaying the initial procedure, the associated missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the associated additional missed approach procedure on a common display.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of determining an additional procedure is operated manually by the pilot using a man-machine interface.

3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of determining an additional procedure is operated automatically by the flight management system according to at least a first predetermined criterion.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the first criterion is chosen from a set comprising the shortest distance to the runway and an indexing of preference.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the first end point of the initial procedure is provided with a first identifier, wherein the additional procedure comprises a sequenced series of waypoints each having an identifier, and wherein the concatenation step comprises the sub-steps of:
running through the waypoints and comparing the indicator of the current waypoint with the first identifier,
when a waypoint having an indicator identical to the first identifier is identified:
comparing the geographic coordinates of the identified waypoint with the geographic coordinates of the first end point,
when the coordinates are identical, concatenating the initial procedure with the additional procedure from a start point corresponding to the identified waypoint of the sequenced series,
eliminating the waypoints situated upstream of the identified waypoint in the sequenced series,

when no waypoint comprising an indicator identical to the first indicator is identified:
concatenating the additional procedure with the initial procedure starting from a start point corresponding to the first waypoint of the sequenced series, by inserting a lateral discontinuity between the first end point and the first point of the sequenced series.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selection step is operated manually by a pilot using a man-machine interface.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selection step is operated automatically by the flight management system according to at least one second predetermined criterion that is a function of parameters representative of the aerodynamic situation of the aircraft.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the parameters are chosen from a set comprising: current heading; target heading; lateral deviation with respect to the active flight plan; altitude; energy; current position; predicted position.

9. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising a step consisting of eliminating the second non-selected procedure.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the display shows a differentiation between activated and non-activated procedures.

11. A device for calculating a flight plan used by a flight management system of an aircraft in a runway approach phase, said flight management system comprising a navigation database comprising at least one additional stored procedure ending at a threshold of the runway and at least one associated additional missed approach procedure, the device being configured to:
load an initial procedure ending at a first end point not corresponding to a threshold of the runway and an associated first missed approach procedure,
determine an additional procedure from among the at least one additional procedure stored in the navigation database and an associated second missed approach procedure,
concatenate the initial procedure and the additional procedure in such a way as to generate a continuous concatenated flight plan comprising the initial procedure, the first missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the second missed approach procedure,
load the concatenated flight plan into an active flight plan,
select a second procedure from a set comprising the first missed approach procedure and the additional procedure,
activate the selected second procedure, and
a display configured to graphically display the initial procedure, the associated missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the associated additional missed approach procedure.

12. The device according to claim 11 , wherein the device is further configured to generate a graphical display of the initial procedure, the associated missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the associated additional missed approach procedure on the display.

13. A tangible non-transitory computer program product, said tangible non-transitory computer program product comprising code instructions configured to be executed on a computer for calculating a flight plan used the computer for an aircraft in a runway approach phase, said computer comprising a navigation database comprising at least one stored additional procedure ending at a threshold of the runway and at least one associated additional missed approach procedure, said tangible non-transitory computer program product comprising:
instructions for loading an initial procedure ending at a first end point not corresponding to the threshold of the runway and a first associated missed approach procedure,
instructions for determining an additional procedure from among the at least one additional procedure stored in the navigation database and a second associated missed approach procedure,
instructions for concatenating the initial procedure and the additional procedure in order to generate a continuous concatenated flight plan comprising the initial procedure, the first missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the second missed approach procedure,
instructions for loading the concatenated flight plan into an active flight plan,
instructions for selecting a second procedure from a set comprising the first missed approach procedure and the additional procedure, and
instructions for activating the selected second procedure, and instructions for graphically displaying the initial procedure, the associated missed approach procedure, the additional procedure and the associated additional missed approach procedure on a common display.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Coulmeau François
• Sacle Jérôme
• Dewas Emmanuel

Classifications

• G08G5/34

  for flight plan modification · CPC title

• G05D1/0676 Primary

  specially adapted for landing · CPC title

• G08G5/54 Primary

  for approach or landing · CPC title

• G08G5/025

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/02 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic