Aircraft ground collision avoidance and autorecovery systems device

A method of automatically avoiding aircraft ground collision comprising the steps of:

• entering a preselected aircraft flight floor altitude in an aircraft flight computer;
• monitoring aircraft flight states with said flight computer, said flight states including air speed, altitude and flight path angles;
• calculating by said flight computer the amount of altitude to be lost during recovery maneuver if the monitored flight states, when extrapolated would indicate a loss of altitude;
• adding by said flight computer the amount of altitude to be lost as indicated by the monitored flight states during the recovery maneuver to the preselected floor altitude to determine a flyup altitude;
• comparing by said flight computer the flyup altitude to aircraft altitude;
• and
• sending a command via said flight computer to an autopilot to commence initiation of an automatic flyup maneuver if aircraft altitude is less than the preselected aircraft flight floor altitude.

An autopilot for automatically performing an aircraft altitude recovery comprising:

• (a) an angle of attack limiter including an angle of attack detector, for producing an angle of attack signal that limits aircraft angle of attack to within an aircraft stall margin during aircraft altitude recovery;
• (b) a g-force limiter including a g-force detector for producing a signal that prevents overloading of aircraft structures during aircraft altitude recovery;
• (c) a bank angle recovery signal generating means including a bank angle detector, generating a signal for controlling aircraft elevators to promote aircraft altitude recovery;
• (d) an elevator summing junction for combining signals from said angle of attack limiter, said g-force limiter and said bank angle recovery generating means to provide a sum signal to control aircraft elevators to achieve aircraft recovery without exceeding aircraft flight capabilities;
• (e) a roll rate limiter including a roll rate detector, for providing a signal to eliminate excessive aircraft roll;
• and
• (f) an aileron summing junction for combining signals from said roll rate limiter and the bank angle detector to provide a sum signal to control aircraft ailerons to achieve level flight and aircraft altitude recovery.