Replacement avionics display instrument
AssigneeL3 Communications Corporation
InventorsRobert Buell, Marcus Dutton, Gregory Leggitt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A solid-state electronic avionics display instrument includes one or more bar-graph-like displays mounted within a housing in a manner that emulates the manner in which prior electromechanical indicator mechanisms have been mounted in such housings so as to indicate a value along a vertically readable scale. An aircraft can be retrofitted with such instruments to replace existing electromechanical mechanism-based avionics instruments.
Claims14
A replacement avionics display instrument for use in existing aircraft to replace an existing electromechanical instrument having an electro-mechanical display, the aircraft having an instrument opening for receiving the electromechanical instrument and having electrical connections for supplying electrical signals to the electromechanical instrument, the replacement avionics display instrument comprising:
- an avionics housing either removed from such an aircraft or constructed to replicate such a housing, the avionics housing configured to fit in the existing instrument opening;
- an electronic display housed within the housing;
- and
- electronic circuitry coupled to the electronic display to allow the electronic display to be driven by the electrical input signals of the aircraft, whereby the replacement avionics display can be connected to the electrical inputs of the aircraft and installed in the existing opening in the aircraft.
A replacement avionics display instrument for use in existing aircraft to replace an existing electromechanical instrument having an electromechanical display, the aircraft having an instrument opening for receiving the electromechanical instrument and having electrical connections for supplying electrical signals to the electro-mechanical instrument, the replacement avionics display instrument comprising:
- a housing having at least one vertically readable scale;
- at least one bar-graph display mounted in the housing;
- and
- interface electronics receiving an input signal from an aircraft sensor and activating a length of a bar-graph display proportional to a quantity represented by the input signal.
A method for retrofitting an avionics display instrument to replace an electromechanical instrument, the electromechanical instrument being of the type having a housing containing an electromechanical movement adapted to be driven by electrical input signals from an aircraft to which the electro-mechanical instrument is mounted, the method comprising the steps of:
- removing the electromechanical instrument from the aircraft,
- removing the electromechanical movement from the housing of the electromechanical instrument;
- mounting an electronic display in the housing in place of the electromechanical movement, the solid state electronic display being adapted to be driven by the same electrical input signals as the original avionics display instrument;
- and
- remounting the housing in the aircraft.
A method for retrofitting vertical scale indicators of an aircraft, comprising the steps of:
- removing an electromechanical mechanism-based vertical scale indicator from the aircraft, the electromechanical mechanism-based vertical scale indicator having a housing and an electromechanical indicator mechanism;
- and
- installing an electronic display-based vertical scale indicator in the aircraft in place of the electromechanical mechanism-based vertical scale indicator removed from the aircraft, the electronic display-based vertical scale indicator having a housing essentially identical in form to the housing of the electro-mechanical mechanism-based vertical scale indicator and having a bar-graph display instead of the electromechanical indicator mechanism, wherein activation of the bar-graph display emulates movement of the electromechanical indicator mechanism.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.