United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of Nasa

Douglas A Drew

Thomas R Chidester

Robert E Lawrence

Thomas A Ferryman

Robert E Lynch

Brett Amidan

Gary L Prothero

Timothy P Romanowski

Laurent Bloch

Robert J Ainsworth

William L Craine

Vincent J Zaccardi

Method and system for analyzing, separately or in combination, kinetic energy and potential energy and/or their time derivatives, measured or estimated or computed, for an aircraft in approach phase or in takeoff phase, to determine if the aircraft is or will be put in an anomalous configuration in order to join a stable approach path or takeoff path. A reference value of kinetic energy and/or potential energy (or time derivatives thereof) is provided, and a comparison index for the estimated energy and reference energy is computed and compared with a normal range of index values for a corresponding aircraft maneuver. If the computed energy index lies outside the normal index range, this phase of the aircraft is identified as anomalous, non-normal or potentially unstable.

Energy index for aircraft maneuvers

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Peachtree City, GA, United States of America

Douglas A Drew