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US 12,731,498 B2Granted
Aircraft flight envelope protection and recovery autopilot
AssigneeGulfstream Aerospace Corporation
InventorKevin Prosser
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and vehicle are provided. A flight envelope protection system includes: a potential path generation module configured to generate a plurality of possible recovery trajectories for the aircraft; a trajectory selection module configured to select a possible recovery trajectory; a trajectory flight condition module configured to estimate a flight condition of the aircraft along the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory; a limit comparison module configured to determine whether the modeled flight condition violates an aircraft limit; and a recovery autopilot module configured to guide the aircraft along one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories.
Claims20
An avionics system for an aircraft, the system comprising:
- a potential path generation module configured to generate a plurality of possible recovery trajectories for the aircraft, each of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories describing a potential aircraft path relative to a current flight condition;
- a trajectory selection module configured to select a possible recovery trajectory from the plurality of possible recovery trajectories;
- an energy state module configured to calculate an energy state of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory;
- a trajectory flight condition module configured to estimate a modeled flight condition of the aircraft along the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory based at least in part on the calculated energy state of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path, where the modeled flight condition of the aircraft includes at least an estimate an airspeed of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path;
- a limit comparison module and an aircraft limit database configured to determine whether the modeled flight condition violates an aircraft limit along the potential recovery trajectory;
- and
- a recovery autopilot module configured to guide the aircraft along one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories in response to the one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories being a last trajectory of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories to lack a violation of an aircraft limit along the potential recovery trajectory.
4 more elements
An avionics system for an aircraft, the avionics system including at least one processor configured to:
- generate a plurality of possible recovery trajectories for the aircraft, each of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories describing a potential aircraft path relative to a current flight condition;
- repeatedly select a possible recovery trajectory from the plurality of possible recovery trajectories, and for the selected possible recovery trajectory:
- calculate an energy state of the aircraft for time slices along the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory;
- estimate a modeled flight condition of the aircraft for the time slices along the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory based at least in part on the calculated energy state of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path, where the modeled flight condition of the aircraft includes at least an estimate an airspeed of the aircraft for the time slices along the potential aircraft path;
- and
- determine whether the modeled flight condition violates an aircraft limit along the potential recovery trajectory;
- and
- guide the aircraft along one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories in response to the one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories being a last trajectory of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories to lack a violation of an aircraft limit along the potential recovery trajectory.
5 more elements
An aircraft comprising:
- a sensor system configured to provide aircraft flight condition data;
- an actuator system configured to manipulate control surfaces of the aircraft;
- and
- a control system comprising at least one processor configured to:
- generate a plurality of possible recovery trajectories for the aircraft, each of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories describing a potential aircraft path relative to a current flight condition;
- select a possible recovery trajectory from the plurality of possible recovery trajectories, and for the selected possible recovery trajectory:
- calculate an energy state of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory;
- estimate a modeled flight condition of the aircraft along the potential aircraft path of the selected possible recovery trajectory based at least in part on the calculated energy state of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path, where the modeled flight condition of the aircraft includes at least an estimate an airspeed of the aircraft on the potential aircraft path;
- determine whether the modeled flight condition violates an aircraft limit along the potential recovery trajectory;
- and
- guide the aircraft along one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories in response to the one of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories being a last trajectory of the plurality of possible recovery trajectories to lack a violation of an aircraft limit along the potential recovery trajectory.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.