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AssigneeAirbus Operations GmbH
InventorsSylvain Raynaud, Jean-Claude Mere, Thomas Pastre, Fabien Perrin, Jean Guilhamet
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An aircraft with a unit to transmit information on ability/inability of pilots to fly the aircraft. Guidance avionics include guidance architecture and a flight controller to fly the aircraft. The guidance architecture has two dissimilar guidance chains and a selection unit connected thereto, to the flight controller and to the unit for measuring physical ability/inability, a first guidance chain to compute a main path for the aircraft towards a destination airport based on a current state of the aircraft by following a flight plan and to compute main guidance instructions for following the main path, a second guidance chain to compute an emergency path for the aircraft towards a diversion airport based on an initial portion of the common path with the main path and to compute emergency guidance instructions for following the emergency path. The selection unit receives the main and emergency guidance instructions and transmits either one to the flight controller.
An aircraft comprising a cockpit with display screens and controls that can be activated by a pilot, a communication device for communicating with a ground-based operator, a unit for measuring physical ability or inability configured to determine whether the pilot is able or unable to fly the aircraft and to transmit a signal comprising information relating to the ability or inability of the pilot to fly the aircraft, the aircraft comprising guidance avionics comprising a guidance architecture configured to compute guidance instructions for the aircraft and a flight controller that can be activated/deactivated via an action of the pilot on the controls and is configured to fly the aircraft according to the guidance instructions, wherein the guidance architecture comprises two dissimilar guidance chains and a selection unit connected to the two guidance chains, to the flight controller, to the controls, to the display screens and to the unit for measuring physical ability or inability for receiving the signal transmitted by the unit, a first guidance chain, or main guidance chain, configured to compute a main path for the aircraft towards a destination airport based on a current state of the aircraft and on a flight plan and to compute main guidance instructions for the aircraft for following the main path, a second guidance chain, or emergency guidance chain, configured to compute an emergency path for the aircraft towards a diversion airport based on at least one part of an initial portion of the common path with the main path and on the current state of the aircraft and to compute emergency guidance instructions for the aircraft for following the emergency path, the selection unit configured to receive the main and emergency guidance instructions and to transmit either of the guidance instructions to the flight controller as a function of the information relating to the ability or inability of the pilot to fly the aircraft.
A method for guiding an aircraft comprising a cockpit with display screens and controls that can be activated by a pilot, a communication device for communicating with a ground-based operator, a unit for measuring physical ability or inability configured to determine whether the pilot is able or unable to fly the aircraft and to transmit a signal comprising information relating to the ability or inability of the pilot to fly the aircraft, the aircraft comprising guidance avionics comprising a guidance architecture configured to compute guidance instructions for the aircraft and a flight controller that can be activated/deactivated via an action of the pilot on the controls and is configured to fly the aircraft according to the guidance instructions, the guidance architecture comprising two dissimilar guidance chains and a selection unit connected to the two guidance chains, to the flight controller, to the controls, to the display screens and to the unit for measuring physical ability or inability for receiving the signal transmitted by the unit, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.