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US 11,597,533 B2Granted
Flight management system and method of updating flight calculations
AssigneeGE Aviation Systems LLC
InventorStefan Alexander Schwindt
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for recording flight information of aircraft, such as position, mass, or type, in order to record the position of a wake turbulence of the aircraft. Weather information can be recorded as affecting the wake turbulence. Such information can be provided into a model or algorithm to determine a path of a wake turbulence. An aircraft on a flight path to encounter the wake turbulence can determine a vortex magnitude of the wake turbulence and determine if an advisory alert needs to be provided if the vortex magnitude satisfies a predetermined threshold.
Claims22
A method of updating flight calculations, the method comprising:
- automatically collecting aircraft traffic information including at least one of aircraft position, type, speed, mass, or mass category from at least one of a network of aircraft operating in a nearby region or a ground station;
- automatically collecting real-time weather data;
- predicting at least one vortex with a vortex magnitude to be encountered by a current flight path for an aircraft based on the automatically collected aircraft traffic information and the automatically collected real-time weather data;
- comparing the vortex magnitude to a predetermined threshold for the aircraft, wherein the predetermined threshold is based at least in part upon a speed of the aircraft and a vortex magnitude deemed too great for the aircraft to traverse;
- determine if the vortex magnitude satisfies the predetermined threshold based on the comparing to indicate the vortex magnitude interferes with the current flight path;
- and
- automatically displaying, on an aircraft flight display, a suggested alternative flight path if the vortex magnitude satisfies the predetermined threshold, wherein the displaying the suggested alternative flight path further comprises displaying a time of traversal of the suggested alternative flight path and determining a Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure, which defines a portion of the suggested alternative flight path;
- updating a flight path of the aircraft when the vortex magnitude exceeds the predetermined threshold.
5 more elements
A flight management system, comprising:
- a receiving module configured to receive real-time weather data and configured to receive aircraft traffic information including at least one of aircraft type, speed, mass, or mass category from at least one of a network of aircraft operating in a nearby region or a ground station;
- a routing module for predicting at least one vortex with a vortex magnitude to be encountered by a current flight path of an aircraft based on the real-time weather data and the air traffic information and determining if the vortex magnitude satisfies a predetermined threshold, the predetermined threshold based at least in part upon a speed of the aircraft and a vortex magnitude deemed too great for the aircraft to traverse;
- and
- an advisory module configured to provide a display output based on the determining including at least one of an advisory alert on a system of the aircraft or displaying, on an aircraft flight display, a suggested alternative flight path, wherein the displaying the suggested alternative flight path further comprises displaying a time of traversal of the suggested alternative flight path and determining a Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure, which defines a portion of the suggested alternative flight path;
- updating a flight path of the aircraft when the vortex magnitude exceeds the predetermined threshold.
2 more elements
A method of optimizing a system of flights, the method comprising:
- automatically collecting aircraft traffic information from at least one aircraft including at least one of aircraft position, type, speed, mass, or mass category in a region;
- automatically collecting real-time weather data;
- predicting at least one vortex with a vortex magnitude to be encountered by the at least one aircraft based on the automatically collected aircraft traffic information and the automatically collected real-time weather data;
- comparing the vortex magnitude to a predetermined threshold for the at least one aircraft to determine if the vortex magnitude satisfies the predetermined threshold, wherein the predetermined threshold at least in part upon a speed of the aircraft and a vortex magnitude deemed too great for the aircraft to traverse;
- automatically displaying, on an aircraft flight display, a suggested alternative flight path if the vortex magnitude satisfies the predetermined threshold, wherein the displaying the suggested alternative flight path further comprises displaying a time of traversal of the suggested alternative flight path and determining a Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure, which defines a portion of the suggested alternative flight path;
- and
- updating a flight path of the at least one aircraft when the vortex magnitude exceeds the predetermined threshold.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.