JPH01500299A - Ground approach warning system for excessive descent rate on undulating terrain - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] Excessive drop rate on rolling terrain ni・ru・゛ 柾m This application was filed on the same day by Bljeman and In connection with an application for a terrain identification device for a ground proximity warning system that was assigned to the same assignee as Ming. ing.

i list iL 1, round hole] 91 TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates generally to ground proximity warning systems, and more particularly to A type of navigation system that issues a warning when an aircraft is flying at an excessive rate of descent relative to its altitude. Related to ground proximity warning system for aircraft. When an excessive rate of descent condition exists and Advice is also provided when the aircraft is flying over mountains or rough terrain.

2, [To [Flame] 11 Provides a warning when the aircraft's rate of descent is excessive for a particular altitude above the ground during flight. Background of the Invention Ground proximity warning systems including ground proximity warning systems are known. The rate of descent is excessive. A typical device for providing an alert when , No. 4,060,793 and No. 4,215,334. ing. All of these patents are assigned to the same assignee as the assignee of this invention. and is cited here for reference.

The alarm device described in the above cited document provides satisfactory performance under most conditions. However, there are several conditions that are handled. For example, in a situation where an aircraft aircraft may be intentionally in a steep dive to avoid a landing error (on approach or landing). this condition The situation typically occurs when the aircraft is landing and relative to the distance from the airport. Occurs when the altitude above the ground is too high. Therefore, the pilot should be alerted by the excessive rate of descent. may attempt to avoid a go-around by descending at a descent angle that causes Maneuvering in this manner to avoid a go-around is not possible if the pilot If you can see the runway while on land, or if the pilot makes an instrument landing, then descend. It can be safe if the angle is not steep and has sufficient absolute height. Such operations Vertical can cause rate of descent warnings even though the maneuver is safe.

However, some other factors must be taken into account, e.g. navigation errors or maneuver errors. The pilot intentionally lowers the aircraft too much to avoid a go-around. If placed in a rate condition, the pilot will recognize this fact and ignore the rate of descent warning. Well, this is not a problem if the aircraft is landing correctly, but if there is a navigation error or If the aircraft veers off course due to a pilot error, ignoring the warning is a warning to the pilot. This results in them colliding with the terrain before they have a chance to react. Therefore, such a condition In some cases, the pilot should be given a satisfactory warning, especially when the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain. It is necessary to provide an alarm system that provides information.

Go to 11” SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a ground approach warning system that overcomes the drawbacks of conventional warning systems. Our goal is to provide the following.

Another object of the present invention is to prevent aircraft from flying over mountainous or undulating terrain. Provides a ground approach warning system that increases warning time during excessive rate of descent conditions that occur when It's about doing.

Furthermore, it is another object of the present invention to prevent maneuvering errors or navigational errors during the go-around phase of a flight. The objective is to provide an alert that compensates for the difference.

Therefore, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the aircraft is during a flight, encountering an excessive rate of descent relative to the flight's ground altitude during the flight phase. A ground proximity warning device is provided to provide an alert in the event of an incident. 3 separate alarms, i.e. descent rate (SINK RATE) warning, terrain (TER-RAIN) warning and A FULL-UP alarm is provided. Descent rate warnings and climb warnings are The aircraft encounters an excessive rate of descent condition, whether or not it is flying over rough terrain. provided whenever available. Aircraft experiences excessive rate of descent over rough terrain A unique terrain alert is provided to indicate to the pilot that the This alert indicates the rate of descent Provided a predetermined time after the alert is indicated. Therefore, if the pilot intentionally If the aircraft is in an excessive rate of descent and the aircraft happens to be flying over mountainous terrain, the pilot must The device is equipped with a navigation system that will notify you of this fact and make it less likely that you will ignore the warning. A circuit device is installed to detect when an aircraft is flying over mountainous terrain. In case of excessive rate of descent within the shape, a rate of descent advisory is followed by a terrain warning.

Dumb” Hey These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following brief description of the accompanying drawings. will be readily apparent.

Figure 1 is a warning envelope diagram for excessive rate of descent conditions, and Figure 2 is a ground contact diagram according to the present invention. It is a functional block diagram showing a proximity warning device.

11 Kyu Taisen■μn　m　　,tU　We In the following, the drawings will be described with particular attention to FIG. An excessive rate of descent warning envelope diagram is illustrated. Warning envelope diagram shows descent rate warning It consists of two parts, a part 12 and a rising alarm part 14. The descent rate part is line 1 It is indicated by the diagonal line between 6 and 18. The rising alarm portion 14 of the envelope diagram is shown below line 16. be done. The rate-of-decline portion 12 of the excessive rate-of-decline warning envelope diagram corresponds to the rise rate portion 12 of the alarm envelope diagram 10. before reaching a condition in which the aircraft is subject to an evasive action command, such as a condition falling into section 14; used to provide warnings to aircraft pilots. As can be seen from Figure 1 , the descending rate portion 12 of the alarm envelope diagram 10 has a relatively higher rate than the ascending portion 14 at −i. corresponds to a relatively low rate of descent at high radio altitudes.

In some situations, the aircraft pilot may ignore the rate of descent warning. This is especially true if the pilot intentionally flies the aircraft at a high rate of descent. This is because it is intended as a warning. Such conditions may e.g. avoid a go-around. This occurs when the pilot intentionally causes the aircraft to enter an excessive rate of descent in order to the pilot The pilot may ignore the rate of descent warning by intentionally placing the aircraft in an excessive rate of descent condition. You may also choose. If the pilot chooses to ignore the rate of descent warning , if the aircraft is flying over mountainous or undulating terrain due to navigation errors, A situation occurs where the pilot has insufficient time to react before hitting the shape. This invention described here may be useful when an aircraft is flying over mountainous terrain. We solve this problem by detecting whether the aircraft is in this state and Provides terrain alerts when meeting.

Referring to FIG. 2, a ground plane according to the present invention, indicated generally by the numeral 20, A proximity warning device is illustrated.

This device 20 according to the invention includes an exemplary series of gates, comparators and the like. Although illustrated in the form of a functional or logical block diagram in FIG. The means may be other than those shown in Figure 2 by various possible digital and analog means. But you should understand that it can be done. used by alarm devices as described above. The signals represent radio altitude and pressure altitude, as well as ratio, Z velocity, or vertical velocity. Depending on the type of aircraft on which the warning system is installed, these signals include Radio altimeter 22, barometric altimeter 24 (or air data computer) and barometric pressure Altimeter ratio circuit 26 (or from the inertial navigation device when Z speed is used), etc. A new type of digital data bus in an aircraft (as shown) can be obtained from (without).

The warning device 20 according to the present invention provides a warning when the aircraft is in a state of excessive descent rate. provide. Rate-of-fall and climb warnings both indicate when an impending collision with the terrain is being navigated. Provided for demonstration to aircraft pilots. Aircraft flies over rolling or mountainous terrain Terrain warning is also provided and the rate of descent warning circuit is connected to the Two adders 30 and 32, a limiter 34, a scaling amplifier 36, and one A pair of comparators 38 and 40 are provided. The descent rate alarm circuit is the atmospheric pressure ratio circuit 26. (or Z speed signal) and a signal from the radio altimeter 22, an audio-visual warning is issued. The generator 56 is made operational. The signal from barometric altimeter 24 is provided to ratio circuit 26 be done. Ratio circuit 26 applies signal Hb to the positive terminal of adder 30 via line 48. provide. Hb signal indicates a rate of descent of 310 m/min (947 ft/min) Biased by the signal. The output obtained from the adder 30 is sent to the limiter 34 is applied to Limiter 34 controls the magnitude of the biased Hb signal from adder 30. A signal from limiter 34, which serves to limit the amplitude, is passed through line 50. is applied to a Koering amplifier 36. Scaling amplifier 36 scales the coefficient by 3. In the preferred embodiment, to help scale the output of the limiter, the value of K3 is , is selected to be 0,6031, which corresponds to the slope of the rate of descent warning boundary 12 in FIG. Continued The output of the scaling amplifier 36 is sent to the adder 3 along with a signal representing the radio altitude. Both signals applied to the positive terminal of 2 are summed in adder 32 and output to comparator 3. 8. Comparator 38 determines that the scaled output of scaling amplifier 36 is When the signal representing the radio altitude is exceeded, a positive logic signal is printed on the AND gate 28. Then, the voltage applied from the rise circuit 54 to the inverting input terminal of the AND gate 28 is A positive logic signal is applied to AND gate 28 along with the applied signal and the signal from comparator 40. number is applied.

The climb signal inhibits descent rate alarm during climb alarm. applied to AND gate 28 other signals that fall only when the radio altitude is less than 745-(2450 feet). Applying a positive logic signal via line 52 to enable the rate alarm. This is the signal from the comparator 40.

The rise alarm circuit is functionally illustrated by the block labeled 54. rising alarm The circuit receives signals from a barometric altitude ratio circuit 26, a radio altimeter, and a comparator 40. , provides an alarm envelope diagram section as section 14 in FIG. The rising alarm circuit is As described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,060,793, incorporated by reference. ing. The rise alarm circuit 54 also provides a rise signal to the audiovisual alarm generator 56. Ru.

The audio visual warning generator 56 is a loudspeaker or earphone in the cockpit of the aircraft. It is coupled to a transducer as well as a visual indicator. Therefore, the start of climb signal or the start of descent rate signal If a positive logic signal such as Audible alerts are provided. The audio-visual alarm generator is covered by U.S. patents cited for reference. No. 3,925,751 and No. 4,030,065. Ru.

Also, in accordance with an important feature of the invention, the audio-visual warning generator 56 is configured to Terrain warning indicating that an excessive rate of descent condition is encountered while flying over rough or uneven terrain. Designed to provide other unique alerts such as This signal is an AND gate Under the control of 58 and after a time delay by timing circuit 60, an audio-visual alarm generator 56 (, No. 1) and enable the terrain warning signal.

AND gate 58 receives two inputs. One input is that the AND gate 28 A drop rate enable input that is applied to AND gate 58 when enabled. a Other inputs to the gate 58 include an adder 62, an amplifier 64, an integrator 65, and a function generator. In the broken line block labeled 59, which is composed of a generator 66 and a comparator 68, from the detection circuit shown.

The circuit device for detecting whether the aircraft is flying a mountain carver is Typically, the circuit arrangement 59 is responsive to signals representative of the barometric altitude and the radio altitude of the aircraft. , detecting the terrain of the area over which the aircraft is flying. This is the radio altitude and atmospheric pressure of the aircraft. This is achieved by taking the difference in altitude. At any particular time, aviation The difference between the aircraft's pressure altitude and radio altitude is the area over which the aircraft is flying at this particular time. will be equal to the pressure altitude at the point when the aircraft is flying over relatively flat terrain. The signal representing the difference will be relatively constant while the aircraft is over rough terrain. When flying, the signal changes over time as a function of local terrain and aircraft speed. This signal will change over time as the aircraft flies over rough terrain. It will show that you are doing it. The difference signal provides a bias signal that is a function of the difference. is integrated to obtain

A signal representing the radio altitude is obtained from the radio altimeter 22 and is connected to the positive input terminal of the adder 62. is applied to Barometric altimeter 24 (or air data computer, not shown) A signal representing the barometric altitude obtained from is applied to the negative input terminal of adder 62. . The output of adder 62 is applied to the inverting input terminal of amplifier 64.

An integrator 65 whose output is applied to the non-inverting input terminal of the amplifier 64 By connecting to the power terminal, a closed feedback loop is formed. The integrator is , provides a bias signal that is a function of the difference between signals representing radio altitude and pressure altitude. work like that. The integrator constant is used to phase out the signals applied to the inverting input terminal after a predetermined time. chosen to kill. After a predetermined period of time, the output signal from amplifier 64 is removed. In other words, after a predetermined period of time, there will be a signal at the output terminal of the amplifier 64. and in the preferred embodiment, the bias circuit under the following conditions: It is desirable to disable the radio altimeter, i.e. either the barometric altimeter or the radio altimeter. or when the radio wave altitude of the aircraft is a predetermined amount, such as 1520n (500n). 0 feet).

The output of amplifier 64 is applied to function generator 66. The function generator 66 is connected to the amplifier 6 Provides a signal based on the output of 4, and provides a signal based on the output of ) is scaled to provide a signal representing the altitude. This signal is 1 is applied to comparator 68 along with a signal representing an altitude of 82 m (600 feet 1-). Ru. If the output signal from the function generator is greater than 182 A positive logic signal is applied to AND gate 58 indicating flying over terrain. This would cause the AND gate 58 to control the rate of descent warning signal described above. If the rate of descent warning signal is output and the aircraft is flying over rough terrain, If so, after a time delay provided by timing circuit 60, the terrain alert will be started.

In the preferred embodiment, a time of two minutes is selected for integrator 100. other 2 minutes to cover distances spread across multiple junctures within an area. time was selected. Typically, an aircraft flying at normal cruising speed will In many areas this distance travels approximately 22,224v (12 nautical miles) between This would be sufficient to spread to multiple inflection points within the area.

In a device such as the one described above, the aircraft is Another alert is provided to the pilot to inform him that a rate of descent condition is being encountered. It will be done.

Therefore, in order to avoid a go-around condition, the pilot intentionally lowers the aircraft into an excessive rate of descent. , the fact that you intentionally put the aircraft into an excessive rate of descent condition Pilots who are willing to ignore the warning should be advised that the aircraft is flying in a mountainous area. After ignoring the rate of descent warning, the pilot will be provided with a terrain warning to Terrain warnings are provided and corrective action can be taken to avoid impending terrain contact. become capable. This warning is provided one second after the rate of descent warning and before the climb warning. , providing the pilot with additional time to take evasive action before the climb warning.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. 0 For example, the present invention described herein provides an excessive descent rate warning while flying over rough terrain. Although described in connection with It can also be applied to aircraft warnings in the form of

Accordingly, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention resides in the scope of the invention as hereinbefore particularly described. It is understood that implementations other than those described above may also be implemented.

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Claims (19)

[Claims] 1. first signal generating means for providing a signal indicative of a dangerous flight condition; detection means for detecting that the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain; the first means and the detection means while the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain; second signal generating means responsively providing a signal indicative of a dangerous flight condition. Ground approach warning system for aircraft. 2. The detection means is adapted to respond to signals representative of the aircraft's altitude over the ground and pressure altitude. A ground proximity warning system according to item 1. 3. The detection means detects whether the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain during a predetermined time interval. 2. The ground proximity warning device according to claim 1, wherein the ground proximity warning device detects whether or not. 4. A pair according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined time interval is substantially equal to two minutes. Ground proximity warning device. 5. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the dangerous flight condition relates to an excessive rate of descent condition. Ground proximity warning device. 6. The second signal is delayed by a predetermined time after the first signal. The ground proximity warning device described in paragraph 1. 7. a descent rate warning means for generating a warning when the descent rate of the aircraft is greater than a predetermined value; , detection means for detecting that the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain; When the aircraft's descent rate is greater than a predetermined value while the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain. a terrain warning for providing a warning in response to said detection means and said rate of descent warning means; means and Ground approach warning system for aircraft equipped with 8. The detection means is adapted to respond to signals representative of the aircraft's altitude over the ground and pressure altitude. The ground proximity warning device according to item 7. 9. The detection means detects whether the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain during a predetermined time interval. 9. The ground proximity warning device according to claim 8, wherein the ground proximity warning device detects whether or not. 10. 10. The ground station of claim 9, wherein said predetermined time interval is substantially equal to two minutes. Proximity warning device. 11. The terrain warning is delayed by a predetermined amount of time after the rate of descent warning starts. A ground proximity warning device according to claim 7. 12. The source of the signal representing the aircraft's altitude above the ground, and the signal source representing the aircraft's pressure altitude. the signal source of said signal representing the altitude of the aircraft above the ground and the pressure altitude of the aircraft; and means for generating a signal representative of the local topography in response to a source of said signal representative of the local topography. A regional terrain detection circuit used in an aircraft equipped with and. 13. The means further comprises determining the pressure altitude of the aircraft from the signal representing the altitude of the aircraft above the ground. to produce a difference signal representing the regional terrain over which the aircraft is flying. 13. The local terrain detection circuit according to claim 12, further comprising means for detecting. 14. Claim 1, wherein the difference signal is integrated over time over a predetermined time interval. Regional terrain detection circuit described in Section 3. 15. 14. The location of claim 13, wherein said predetermined time interval is substantially equal to two minutes. Area terrain detection circuit. 16. The source of the signal representing the aircraft's altitude above the ground, and the signal source representing the aircraft's pressure altitude. the signal source of said signal representing the altitude of the aircraft above the ground and the pressure altitude of the aircraft; a source of a signal indicative of an excessive rate of descent condition; signal generation means and a signal indicating that the aircraft is flying over rough terrain. detection means; the signal generating means and the detecting means while the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain. means for responsively providing a signal indicative of an excessive rate of descent condition; Excessive descent rate signal generator used on aircraft equipped with 17. The detection means is responsive to signals representative of the aircraft's ground altitude and pressure altitude. The excessive descent rate signal generating device according to claim 16. 18. The detection means detects whether the aircraft is flying over uneven terrain during a predetermined time interval. The excessive descent rate signal generation system according to claim 16, which detects whether or not Raw equipment. 19. 19. The predetermined time interval of claim 18, wherein the predetermined time interval is substantially equal to two minutes. Degree descent rate signal generator.