Airbus Operations (s.a.s.)

Airbus Operations Gmbh

Jean-Claude Mere

Marc Vie

Julien Bernat

Pierre Neri

Sylvain Raynaud

Julien Dramet

Gilles Tatham

Simon Sellem

Ramon Andreu Altava

Mathieu Versini

Thomas Pastre

Fabien Perrin

Olivier Babando

Matthieu Aribert

Jean Guilhamet

Gaëtan Marion

Mauro Marinelli

Lucille Revertegat

An aircraft with a unit to transmit information on ability/inability of pilots to fly the aircraft. Guidance avionics include guidance architecture and a flight controller to fly the aircraft. The guidance architecture has two dissimilar guidance chains and a selection unit connected thereto, to the flight controller and to the unit for measuring physical ability/inability, a first guidance chain to compute a main path for the aircraft towards a destination airport based on a current state of the aircraft by following a flight plan and to compute main guidance instructions for following the main path, a second guidance chain to compute an emergency path for the aircraft towards a diversion airport based on an initial portion of the common path with the main path and to compute emergency guidance instructions for following the emergency path. The selection unit receives the main and emergency guidance instructions and transmits either one to the flight controller.

Aircraft comprising a flight management architecture

A system includes a reception unit to receive current flight data of the aircraft and current meteorological data, a data processing unit to perform an iterative computation to determine, as a function at least of a set of predetermined rules, of a set of constraints and of current values including current meteorological data, an optimal flight trajectory making it possible to generate a dissipation of the energy of the aircraft to bring it, at a stabilized final position, into a final energy state with a minimum ground distance, the optimal flight trajectory defining positions at which actions must be implemented on the aircraft, and a data transmission unit to transmit at least the minimum distance to at least one user system.

Method and system for assisting in the management of the energy of an aircraft over a minimum ground distance in an approach phase

A flight management assembly of an aircraft and method of monitoring the flight management assembly. The assembly includes two flight management systems, and a monitoring and backup unit, each of the flight management systems configured for generating data including a trajectory and a prediction of a parameter of the aircraft, one of the flight management systems being active and the other being passive, the monitoring and backup unit configured for carrying out monitoring of at least one of the items of data generated by the active flight management system in order to verify if the item of data is valid, the flight management assembly carrying out, in case of validation of the monitored item of data, a synchronization of the monitoring and backup unit and of the passive flight management system, with data called synchronization data of the active flight management system, namely a flight plan and/or a flight trajectory.

Flight management assembly of an aircraft, of a transport aircraft in particular, and to a method of monitoring such a flight management assembly

A method and device for generating an optimum aircraft vertical trajectory, including a unit performing iterative processing to determine, on each iteration, a next state from a computational state, by using an estimated overall cost for next states, each estimated overall cost, which is computed by a cost computation unit, being equal to the sum of a real cost computed up to the next state under consideration by using predetermined constraints and a cost estimated up to the current state of the aircraft. The estimated cost is computed using a deterministic neural network based on performance calculations for the aircraft without using energy constraints, allowing computation of this estimated cost and the estimated overall cost to be performed rapidly. The iterative processing is repeated until the determined state is situated in proximity to the current state of the aircraft, the corresponding trajectory part forming the optimum vertical trajectory.

Method and device for generating an optimum vertical trajectory intended to be followed by an aircraft

A method for generating an optimum vertical trajectory of a flight trajectory of an aircraft in the descent/approach phase. The trajectory is defined between a current state and a target state of the aircraft on the basis of a speed profile of the aircraft as a function of a curvilinear abscissa of the aircraft along a flight plan. The profile corresponds to a transition between the current and target states and is broken down into successive segments each corresponding to a different aerodynamic configuration that the aircraft may adopt during the descent/approach phase. The method is based on defining a set of flight strategies, each strategy of the set being defined using for each segment of the speed profile flight parameters chosen randomly in ranges of values compatible with the aerodynamic configuration corresponding to that segment. Optimum vertical trajectory is generated on the basis of the strategy of the set.

Method and avionic system for generating an optimum vertical trajectory

A flight management assembly for an aircraft includes at least one flight management system and at least one display device, the flight management system configured to manage at least one flight plan of the aircraft and one long-term reference path of the aircraft. The flight management assembly additionally includes an auxiliary computer, the auxiliary computer being separate from and independent of the flight management system, the auxiliary computer linked to the flight management system and to the display device, the auxiliary computer configured to perform prediction computations to generate at least one short-term path, from at least the long-term reference path received from the flight management system and from current flight parameters of the aircraft and from piloting setpoints of the aircraft.

Flight management assembly for an aircraft

A method and device for assisting in piloting of an aircraft in approach to a landing runway with a view to a landing, including a module for determining current state of the aircraft, a module for determining distance between a target state and current state from an approach strategy and an ellipse formed by points determined such that a sum of a distance between the current position of the aircraft and the points of the ellipse and of a distance between the points of the ellipse and a projection of the target position on a horizontal plane of movement of the aircraft is equal to distance between target state and current state. The ellipse is displayed on a screen. The ellipse form gives indicates significance and variation of the energy surfeit of the aircraft. The pilot can decide on actions to maneuver the aircraft appropriately to dissipate the excess energy.

Method and device for assisting in the piloting of an aircraft in an approach to a landing runway with a view to a landing

A method and device for generating an optimum vertical path intended to be followed by an aircraft. The device comprises at least one database relating to fixed and moving obstacles, a data entering unit, a data processing unit implementing iterative processing to generate an optimum vertical path between an initial state and a final state as a function of flight strategies, that optimum vertical path being generated in such a manner as to be free of any collision with surrounding obstacles and to conform to energy constraints, and a data transmission link for transmitting that optimum vertical path to at least one user system.

Method and device for generating an optimum vertical path intended to be followed by an aircraft

In operating an aircraft, a situation is displayed at each instant representing a spatio-temporal overview of risk zones around the aircraft. Each direction in space around the aircraft is scanned, and a simulated displacement of the aircraft in each direction is analyzed so as to identify potential zones of interference with the aircraft's path. Anticipated movement of risk zones over a planned time duration of a flight is determined. Such anticipated movement is correlated with an anticipation position of the aircraft over the planned time duration. Accordingly, risk zones initially appearing as a potential hazard may be determined to be safe by the time the aircraft reaches them, and vice versa. Such information is presented to pilots at an outset of the flight and continuously updated throughout the flight, enabling accurate and safe evaluation and strategy decisions.

System and method for collision avoidance

A device includes a database including data related to obstacles, a first determination module for determining at least one obstacle intercepted by a direct flight path connecting an initial point to the target point, a second determination module for determining at least one lateral extreme apex of at least one intercepted obstacle, an evaluation module for assigning a rating to each section corresponding to a segment between a lateral extreme apex and the initial point, a storage module for storing in a memory the section corresponding to the optimum extreme apex having the best rating, the optimum flight path corresponding to all of the sections stored in the memory, the preceding modules being used iteratively, the device further including a transmission module for transmitting the optimum flight path to a user device.

Method and device for generating an optimum flight path intended to be followed by an aircraft

A flight management system for an aircraft and method of securing open world data using such a system. The flight management system includes at least two flight management computers including one computer termed active forming part of an active guidance subsystem configured to supply data for guiding the aircraft. Another computer is termed inactive at the current time. The flight management system includes a validation subsystem that includes the inactive flight management computer and a validation unit connected to the flight management computers. The validation subsystem is independent of the active guidance subsystem and configured to validate open world data and to transmit at least to the active flight management computer data that is validated during the validation.

Flight management system for an aircraft and method of securing open world data using such a system

The invention relates to a flight management assembly () comprising two guidance chains (A,B), each one provided with a flight management system (A,B), each of said flight management systems (A,B) carrying out at least one calculation of guidance instructions for the aircraft, the flight management assembly () also comprising at least one monitoring unit (A,B) designed to monitor the guidance instructions calculated by the two flight management systems (A,B) in such a way as to be able to detect and identify a defective flight management system, the monitoring unit (A,B) comprising a monitoring device () which verifies particularly whether the following three conditions are met: a first derivative of extrapolated cross tracks is positive; a second derivative of extrapolated cross tracks is positive; and extrapolated positions of the aircraft are on the same side of an active segment of the flight plan followed by the aircraft as the current position of the aircraft.

Assembly for the flight management of an aircraft and method for monitoring guidance instructions for such an assembly

A flight management system architecture with separate core and supplementary modules. In the core module, generic functionalties relative to the flight management of the aircraft are implemented. In the supplementary module, supplementary functions are implemented. The supplementary functionalities include functionalties specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs such as the specific aircraft model, a family of aircraft, a company, an alliance, and so on. The flight management system also includes a message exchange interface in which enables the core and supplementary modules to exchanges messages with each other. The core and supplementary modules includes corresponding core module and supplementary module interfacing functionaltities that respectively interface with generic and specific man-machine interfaces.

Flight management system of an aircraft

A flight management assembly for an aircraft and method for monitoring such an assembly. The flight management assembly includes two guidance systems each provided with a flight management system, the flight management systems being independent, each of the flight management systems carrying out at least one calculation of roll commands for the aircraft, the flight management assembly also comprising a data generating unit, preferably forming part of a guidance computer, for calculating a roll command and a monitoring unit for carrying out a monitoring of the roll commands calculated by the two flight management systems and by the data generating unit in such a way as to be able to detect and identify a defective flight management system.

Flight management assembly for an aircraft and method for monitoring such an assembly

A flight management unit includes two guidance subsystems each including a flight management system, each of the flight management systems being configured at least to extract a flight plan from at least one navigation database, to construct a flight trajectory, and to compute guidance commands for the aircraft. The flight management unit also includes at least one monitoring unit configured to compute a guidance command from a validated flight trajectory and a consolidated flight plan and to monitor the guidance command, as well as guidance commands computed by the two flight management systems so as to be able to detect and to identify a defective flight management system.

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Verfeil, France

Jean-Claude Mere