US 4,626,851 AGranted

Aircraft display devices

AssigneeGEC Avionics Limited

InventorMichael J. Tooze

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Abstract

An aircraft attitude display device comprising: a circular array of radially extending selectively activatable display elements (5), the radially inner ends of which constitute a boundary defining a central space; within the said central space, a fixed aircraft symbol (7); and means for selectively activating the said display elements in accordance with aircraft attitude so that the selected display elements form a visible pattern, e.g. a sector of the array, bearing a geometrical relationship with respect to the aircraft symbol indicative of the aircraft attitude. The device is suitable for implementation using liquid crystal display technology to give a stand-by display of aircraft pitch and roll which is readily understandable by pilots since it is similar to the display given by conventional rolling ball action aircraft attitude instruments.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A display device for an aircraft comprising:

a circular array of radially extending selectively activatable display elements, the radially inner ends of which elements define a central space;
within the said central space, a symbol fixed with respect to the aircraft in use;
and means for selectively activating said display elements in accordance with aircraft attitude whereby the selected display elements form a visible pattern whose geometrical relationship with respect to said symbol is indicative of the aircraft attitude;
and wherein said means for selectively activating said display elements activates a group of said elements which together form a sector of said circular array whose angular position in the array relative to said symbol is indicative of the roll angle of the aircraft;
and said sector becomes progressively a larger angle sector as the aircraft pitch angle increases from zero in one direction and a smaller angle sector as the aircraft pitch angle increases from zero in the opposite direction.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.