Honeywell International Inc.

Thomas A Ryno

Mark T Manfred

Mark E Wright

James B Broderick

Doug Weed

Doug M Weed

Systems and methods for providing aircraft heading information are provided. In one embodiment, an attitude heading reference device comprises: at least one interface for receiving heading information from one or more IRUs; at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers; a memory device for storing data representing heading information received via the at least one interface; and a heading calculator coupled to the at least one interface, the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers, and the memory device. The heading calculator generating a heading output signal based on heading information when reliable heading information is received over the at least one interface; the heading calculator generating the heading output signal based on data from the memory device regarding previously reliable heading information and an output of the at least one set of gyroscopes and accelerometers when reliable heading information is not received over the at least one interface.

Systems and methods for providing aircraft heading information

An aircraft inertial system comprises at least two inertial reference units (IRU) that provide a first set of inertial signal data for an aircraft and at least two attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) that provide a second set of the inertial signal data for the aircraft. At least one primary flight display receives the first and the second sets of the inertial signal data, and a standby flight display receives at least the second set of the inertial signal data from at least one of the AHRS. When a single fault condition occurs, the primary flight display continues to operate with fail-operational redundancy from at least three independent sources of the inertial signal data comprising one or more IRU and AHRS combinations. The standby flight display will operate using a different source of the inertial signal data than the source of the inertial signal data for the primary flight display.

Systems and methods of redundancy for aircraft inertial signal data

A system and method for aligning an inertial reference system, which is coupled to a moveable body, is provided. The method includes obtaining unaided navigation state information from an unaided source, and obtaining aiding state information from an aiding source. The unaided navigation state information is generated by the unaided source using navigation information provided by an inertial reference, and the aiding state information is generated by the aiding source using navigation information provided by at least one external reference. The method also includes determining an unaided navigation solution using the unaided navigation state information, and determining an aided navigation solution using a combination of the unaided and aiding state information. As a default, the method provides the unaided navigation solution for navigating the movable body. When the aided navigation solution provides a better solution for navigating the movable body, the unaided navigation solution is replaced with the aided navigation solution.

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Andover, MN, United States of America

Thomas A Ryno