Device for monitoring the stabilisation of the approach phase of an aircraft to a landing runway, associated method and computer program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9469414-B2
Application number	US-201414554175-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2014
Priority date	Nov 28, 2013
Publication date	Oct 18, 2016
Grant date	Oct 18, 2016

Abstract

This monitoring device for monitoring the stabilization of the final approach phase of an aircraft to a landing runway includes:
an acquisiter for acquiring an instantaneous position of the aircraft, a calculator for calculating an instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft, and a characteristic point of the landing runway, a determinater for determining one or more variables relating to the aircraft, when said instantaneous distance is comprised between first and second predetermined distances, and a generator for generating an alert signal, when at least one of said one or more variables is outside the boundary of a respective domain of values.

Each boundary depends on the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point of the landing runway.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A monitoring device for monitoring the stabilisation of the final approach phase of an aircraft to a landing runway, the device comprising: acquisition means for acquiring an instantaneous position of the aircraft, calculating means for calculating an instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft, and a characteristic point of the landing runway, determination means for determining one or more variables relating to the aircraft, when said instantaneous distance is comprised between first and second predetermined distances, generation means for generating an alert signal, when at least one of said one or more variables is outside a boundary of a respective domain of values, wherein one or more boundaries are associated with each of the one or more variables, wherein each boundary depends on the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point of the landing runway, wherein each boundary satisfies a monotonic function when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point decreases.

2. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the monotonic function is a decreasing function of the boundary of the domain when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and said characteristic point decreases.

3. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the domain of values associated with a corresponding variable is an interval of values having extreme bounds and the differential gap between the extreme bound values, which form the boundary of said domain, decreases when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and said characteristic point decreases.

4. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein the domain of values associated with a corresponding variable is an interval of values having extreme bounds, and the median value of the extreme bound values, which form the boundary of said domain, decreases when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and said characteristic point decreases.

5. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein at least one determined variable is an element selected from the group consisting of: a current speed of the aircraft, a current flight path angle of the aircraft, a current attitude of the aircraft, a current heading of the aircraft, a current track of the aircraft, a localizer deviation of the aircraft relative to a predetermined approach axis to the landing runway, a current glide deviation of the aircraft relative to a predetermined approach axis to the landing runway, a X track lateral error of the aircraft relative to a predetermined approach axis to the landing runway and a X track vertical error of the aircraft relative to a predetermined approach axis to the landing runway.

6. The device as recited in claim 5 wherein the domain associated with each determined variable is an interval of values having extreme bounds forming the boundary of said domain.

7. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein one determined variable is a prediction of the landing distance of the aircraft along a longitudinal axis of the landing runway relative to a reference point on the landing runway.

8. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein at least one determined variable is selected from an estimated lateral position of ground impact by the aircraft, and one estimated longitudinal position of ground impact by the aircraft, the estimated lateral position of ground impact being determined along a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the landing runway and the estimated longitudinal position of ground impact being determined along a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the landing runway.

9. The device as recited in claim 1 wherein one determined variable is an estimated position of ground impact by the aircraft, the boundary of a domain associated with said variable is in the form of an ellipse having a semi-major axis and a semi-minor axis, and the semi-major axis and the semi-minor axis of the ellipse decrease when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and said characteristic point decreases.

10. A method for monitoring the stabilisation of the final approach phase of an aircraft to a landing runway, the method comprising the following steps: acquiring an instantaneous position of the aircraft, calculating an instantaneous distance, between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and a characteristic point of the landing runway, determining one or more variables relating to the aircraft, when said instantaneous distance is comprised between first and second predetermined distances, generating an alert signal, when at least one out of said one or more variables is outside a boundary of a respective domain of values, wherein one or more boundaries are associated with each of the one or more variables, wherein each boundary depends on the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point of the landing runway, wherein each boundary satisfies a monotonic function, when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point decreases.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 wherein the monotonic function is a decreasing function of the boundary of the domain when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and said characteristic point decreases.

12. A monitoring device for monitoring the stabilisation of the final approach phase of an aircraft to a landing runway, the device comprising: an acquisitor for acquiring an instantaneous position of the aircraft, a calculator for calculating an instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft, and a characteristic point of the landing runway, a determinator for determining one or more variables relating to the aircraft, when said instantaneous distance is comprised between first and second predetermined distances, and a generator for generating an alert signal, when at least one of said one or more variables is outside a boundary of a respective domain of values, wherein one or more boundaries are associated with each of the one or more variables, wherein each boundary depends on the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point of the landing runway, wherein each boundary satisfies a monotonic function when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and the characteristic point decreases.

13. The method as recited in claim 12 wherein the monotonic function is a decreasing function of the boundary of the domain when the instantaneous distance between the instantaneous position of the aircraft and said characteristic point decreases.

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Meunier Hugues

Classifications

• G08G5/21

  located onboard the aircraft · CPC title

• G08G5/54 Primary

  for approach or landing · CPC title

• G08G5/02

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0021

  Physics · mapped topic

• B64D2045/008

  Devices for detecting or indicating hard landing · CPC title