US 5,839,080 AGranted

Terrain awareness system

AssigneeAlliedSignal Inc.

InventorsHans R. Muller, Kevin J. Conner, Steven C. Johnson

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Abstract

A terrain awareness system (TAS) provides LOOK-AHEAD/LOOK-DOWN as well as LOOK-UP terrain advisory and warning indications to the pilot of an aircraft of a hazardous flight condition. The TAS includes an airport data base as well as a terrain data base that is structured to provide various resolutions depending on the topography of the particular geographic area of interest. Navigational data from a satellite-based navigational system, such as a global positioning system (GPS), is used to provide a LOOK-AHEAD/LOOK-DOWN and LOOK-UP terrain advisory and terrain warning indications based upon the current position and projected flight path of the aircraft. Since the terrain advisory and the warning signals are a function of the flight path of the aircraft, nuisance warnings are minimized.

Claims13

Dependent claims

An apparatus for alerting a pilot of an aircraft of proximity to terrain, the apparatus comprising:

an input for receiving signals representative of a position of the aircraft, a flight path angle of the aircraft and a speed of the aircraft, and coupled to a data base of stored terrain information;
an output;
a signal processing device, coupled to said input, and coupled to said output, for:
(a) defining a look ahead distance as a function of the speed of the aircraft;
(b) defining a first alert envelope, indicative of a first severity of terrain threat,
wherein boundaries of said first alert envelope are determined as a first function of the flight path angle, said look ahead distance, and a terrain floor boundary;
(b) defining a second alert envelope, indicative of a second severity of terrain threat, wherein boundaries of said second alert envelope are determined as a second function of the flight path angle, said look ahead distance and said terrain floor boundary;
and
(d) outputting an alert signal when a subset of the stored terrain information is located within the boundaries of at least one of said first and said second alert envelopes.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.