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US 6,167,627 AGranted
Aeronautical holding pattern calculator
OwnerBruce Gary Wilder, Otto Charles Wilkeinventors
Life of this patent
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OwnerBruce Gary Wilder, Otto Charles Wilkeinventors
Estimating the term…
A device for computing the heading of an airplane in the outbound leg of a holding pattern, and the bearing to a VOR or NDB station at which the airplane should begin turning inbound at the end of the outbound leg, given the bearing of the outbound leg, the speed and bearing of the wind, and the true airspeed of the plane, but without requiring the user to keep track of the time. In a first preferred embodiment, the invention comprises a slide rule with upper, middle and lower disks attached at their centers by a pivot, and a straight rule movably retained in a groove in an upper disk. There is a logarithmic scale for true airspeed on the straight rule, and a parallel and adjacent logarithmic scale for wind speed on the upper disk. The lower and middle disks each have degree markings, and the middle disk also has figures for heading and bearing corrections, to which arrows on the straight rule point. In a second preferred embodiment, the invention comprises a digital electronic device programmed to make equivalent computations. The user is prompted to enter the given values. Heading and bearing corrections are retrieved from tables stored in memory, and used to compute the proper heading during the outbound leg and the bearing to the station at which to turn.
A device comprising:
A method for determining a heading and a bearing to a station at which a turn in a holding pattern of an aircraft should be executed, without requiring a user to keep track of time, comprising the steps of:
A method for determining a heading and a bearing to a station at which a turn in a holding pattern of an aircraft should be executed, without requiring a user to keep track of time, comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.