Method and device for preventing aerodynes from colliding with relief obstacles

A device for preventing collisions between an aerodyne and obstacles formed by relief of a geographical area flown over by said aerodyne, said device comprising:

• a computer, provided in a ground station for air surveillance of said geographical area, said computer being linked up to Hertzian waves communication means and to a geographical data base describing the relief of said geographical area;
• data acquisition means, provided in said aerodyne, for automatically and periodically acquiring navigation data representative of a current position and further flight path of said aerodyne, and for drawing up tracking messages each comprising an identification code of said aerodyne and said navigation data associated with a date of acquisition;
• Hertzian waves communication means, provided in said aerodyne for sending said tracking messages, said tracking messages being received by the communication means of the ground station when said aerodyne is flying over said geographical area,
• display means, provided in said aerodyne, for displaying information sent by the communication means of the ground station and received by the communication means of said aerodyne;
• said computer comprising:
• means for permanently monitoring said tracking messages received by the communication means of the ground station,
• means for identifying said aerodyne with said identification code contained in each of said tracking messages,
• means for estimating and localizing in said geographical area the further flight path of said aerodyne, by means of the navigation data contained in each of said tracking messages and said geographical data base, and for determining risks of collisions of said aerodyne with obstacles of relief,
• computation means for drawing up avoidance flight commands to be performed by a pilot of said aerodyne so as to prevent said aerodyne from colliding with an obstacle of relief, said computation means using said geographical data base, said estimated further flight path and estimated further flight paths of other aerodynes flying over said geographical area,
• means for drawing up avoidance messages comprising a last received tracking message from said aerodyne, an indication on said risks of collision and said avoidance flight commands, said avoidance message being transmitted to said aerodyne and displayed on said display means.