Aircraft traffic alert and collision avoidance device

Abstract

A passive aircraft Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance device (TCAD) is based on sensing and responding to transponder replies of other aircraft to SSR interrogations. In order to avoid masking other aircraft replies by the host transponder TCAD repeatedly and randomly suppresses the host transponder and simultaneously listens for other aircraft replies. Suppression on each occasion is effective for an equal and predetermined duration which is much longer than a typical reply, in a preferred embodiment the suppression/listen duration is 725 .mu.s. In this embodiment the time between successive suppression/listen occasions is random between 725 .mu.s. and 5.025 ms. with an average value of about 2.9 ms. Digital signal processing is used to detect and discard garbled or overlapping replies. Each valid reply, exhibiting a minimum pulse amplitude, is decoded and correlated with a calibrated range parameter and given a time tag. Successive replies which match to within predetermined criteria in time and calibrated range are merged to track the positional relation between the host and other aircraft. The positional relation between other aircraft and the host are evaluated via a priority table in terms of relative altitude and range to locate that craft which poses the highest threat to the host. Parameters of such a craft are displayed. In the event a craft penetrates a shield of programmable size an audible alert is sounded. TCAD provides for shields for each of a plurality of flight regimes, such as terminal, standard and enroute. Selection among shields is via a single pushbutton. TCAD allows the pilot to program each of the different shield sizes. Peripheral functions such as altitude deviation alert, density altitude and barometric pressure correction for altitude reporting are also provided.