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US 4,357,661 AGranted
Aircraft landing control system
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsAntonius A. Lambregts, Rolf Hansen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Upon aircraft landing approach, flare path command signals of altitude, vertical velocity and vertical acceleration are generated as functions of aircraft position and velocity with respect to the ground. The command signals are compared with corresponding actual values to generate error signals which are used to control the flight path.
Claims8
Apparatus for generating flare path control signals for an aircraft comprising:
- ground position means for producing a ground position signal, .DELTA.x, representative of the position of the aircraft relative to a fixed reference point on the ground;
- ground speed means for producing a ground speed signal representative of the ground speed of the aircraft;
- command means for processing said ground position signal and said ground speed signal in a predetermined manner to produce:
- (a) an altitude command signal, h.sub.c ;
- (b) a vertical velocity command signal, h.sub.c ;
- and
- (c) a vertical acceleration command signal, h.sub.c, whereby said h.sub.c command signal defines the desired flare path of the aircraft and said h.sub.c and h.sub.c command signals represent desired sink rate and vertical acceleration respectively, corresponding to said desired flare path;
- sensor means for producing signals h, h and h representative of the aircraft's actual altitude relative to the runway, vertical velocity and vertical acceleration, respectively;
- subtracting means for subtracting each actual aircraft signal h, h and h from the corresponding commanded value h.sub.c, h.sub.c and h.sub.c to produce error signals h.sub..epsilon., h.sub..epsilon. and h.sub..epsilon., respectively;
- and
- aircraft control means for processing said error signals h.sub..epsilon., h.sub..epsilon. and h.sub..epsilon. and control the aircraft to the command flight path.
8 more elements
A method for generating aircraft flare path control signals comprising the steps of:
- (a) producing a ground position signal, x, having a value representative of the position of the aircraft with respect to a predetermined ground location;
- (b) producing a ground speed signal, V.sub.G, having a value representative of the ground speed of the aircraft;
- (c) producing an altitude command signal, h.sub.c, a vertical velocity command signal, h.sub.c, and a vertical acceleration command signal, h.sub.c, said h.sub.c signal being functionally related to said position signal x and said h.sub.c and h.sub.c signals being functionally related to said position signal x as well as said ground speed signal V.sub.G, said command signals h.sub.c, h.sub.c and h.sub.c defining the desired flare path of the aircraft;
- (d) producing signals h, h and h corresponding to aircraft actual altitude, vertical velocity and vertical acceleration, respectively;
- (e) subtracting each actual aircraft signal h, h and h from the corresponding commanded value h.sub.c, h.sub.c and h.sub.c and producing error signals h.sub..epsilon., h.sub..epsilon. and h.sub..epsilon., respectively, in response thereto;
- and
- (f) processing said error signals in a predetermined manner to control the aircraft to the commanded flare path.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.