The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 14, 2013
Filed:
Feb. 11, 2010
Ramon Gomez Ledesma, Madrid, ES;
David Garrido-lopez, Madrid, ES;
Ramon Gomez Ledesma, Madrid, ES;
David Garrido-Lopez, Madrid, ES;
The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to continuous descent approaches that ensure the greatest certainty in arrival time. The continuous descent approach is flown by maintaining an aerodynamic flight path angle, thereby allowing a ground speed to be followed with greater accuracy. An improvement is described that accounts for turns made during continuous descent approaches that may otherwise cause a drift away from the desired ground speed, and hence arrival time. A correction to the aerodynamic flight path angle is used that produces a compensatory change in the potential energy of the aircraft upon completing the turn to balance the anticipated drift in kinetic energy.