Thales

Stéphane Paris

François Coulmeau

Manuel Gutierrez-Castaneda

Hervé Goutelard

The invention relates to a method and device to assist in navigation in an airport sector. The inventive method and device make it possible to automatically calculate the points of intersection between the path of the flight plan and the zones having speed limitations all around an airport and calculate a speed profile conforming to these limitations. The inventive method and device also make it possible to use an automatic guidance automatically defining flight instructions corresponding to the calculated speed profile. Furthermore, the invention calculates predictions concerning the flight parameters.

Method and device to assist in navigation in an airport sector

A method for assisting an aircraft to rejoin a flight plan is disclosed. The flight plan is composed of a number N of flight segments (LEG, i&#x2282;[1, N]) with a flight segment LEGbeing defined by a departure end (WPT) and by an arrival end (WPT). A navigation mode is termed 'managed mode' wherein, the aircraft has momentarily left the managed mode and has deviated from the flight plan after passing through a waypoint (WPT, p&#x2282;[1, N]), the aircraft occupying a position (PPOS) and seeking to rejoin the flight plan so as to follow it in managed mode. The method comprises a step of evaluating the separation distance (D, i&#x2282;[p+1, N]) between the position (PPOS) of the aircraft and each of the waypoints (WPT, i&#x2282;[p+1, N]). The local minima of the distance between the position (PPOS) of the aircraft and the waypoints (WPT, i&#x2282;[p+1, N]) of the flight plan is determined.

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Tournefeuille, France

Stéphane Paris