Global positioning system readout of recommended altitude in aircraft landing pattern
OwnerHerbert S. Wilfinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for determining a desired altitude for an aircraft during descent toward a runway is provided. The method and system utilize latitude and longitude data provided by a global positioning system (GPS) as well as coordinate data concerning the location of a touchdown point. Elevation data concerning the elevation above mean sea level of the touchdown zone of a runway on which the aircraft is to land is utilized in the exemplary embodiment. The method and system of the invention determine a desired altitude for the aircraft without regard to the actual altitude of the aircraft. Instead, the data utilized provide a pilot with recommended altitude data that can be used to maintain a course of approach to the runway at a prescribed angle.
Claims13
In a GPS system, a method for advising a pilot of a desired altitude during an aircraft descent toward a prescribed runway at which the aircraft is to land, comprising the steps of:
- (a) retrieving touchdown data from a database for the prescribed runway including a touchdown point T and an elevation E of the touchdown point;
- (b) retrieving a latitude and a longitude coordinate of a present global position P of the aircraft from the GPS system;
- (c) determining a desired altitude A for the aircraft at its present global position P that places the aircraft on an approach to the prescribed runway at a predetermined angle relative to the touchdown point T and the elevation E;
- and
- (d) outputting the desired altitude A to a display of the GPS system.
A module for a GPS system having a database containing information retrievable on the basis of a selected airport and runway, the information in the database including touchdown point data comprising latitude and longitude coordinates for any given selected airport and runway, comprising:
- a program executing in the GPS system and configured to determine a desired altitude at a given position P of an aircraft relative to the touchdown point data stored in the database of the selected airport and runway.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.