Airport ground-control system and method

An airport aircraft ground-control method for effecting aircraft and other vehicle ground control at a selected airport, and with respect to such an airport and an aircraft or other vehicle equipped to practice the method, said method comprising

• creating, in operative association with an airport ground-control facility, a control instruction database relating to waypoints and routes of travel between waypoints that are combinable to define a control movement path for an aircraft or another vehicle on the grounds of the airport,
• with respect to a specific aircraft or other vehicle which is to be controlled on such grounds, assembling a packet of instructional information from such database, organized in the form of groups of data which are specific to routes of travel existing between pairs of selected waypoints,
• delivering such data groups within a unitary, singular package of information (instructional package) that is transmitted to an aircraft or other vehicle awaiting ground control,
• within the environment of that aircraft or other vehicle, selectively presenting, for control purposes, instructions contained in the delivered package, with such presenting taking place on a waypoint-by-waypoint, data-group basis, including presenting one or more constructional components in the form of aural instruction and/or text instruction, and/or map-display visual instruction, and
• from onboard the aircraft or other vehicle, and with respect to a transmitted and received instructional package, and without the necessity for further instructional information being transmitted from the database, tracking the aircraft's or other vehicle's response to the delivered instructions in a manner which furnishes advisories and warnings at least within the environment of the aircraft or other vehicle regarding any movement deviation from received ground-control instructions.

An airport aircraft ground-control method for effecting aircraft ground control at a selected airport with respect to an aircraft equipped to practice the method comprising

• creating, relative to a subject airport, a control-instruction database including components (instructional components) regarding waypoints and routes of travel therebetween, which components are combinable to define a controlled movement path for an aircraft on the grounds of the airport, with respect to control over a specific aircraft, assembling from such database a selectable and defined packet of instructional components relating to a specific route of travel on the grounds of the airport,
• delivering the assembled packet as a unitary singularity precursor package of information to an aircraft awaiting ground control,
• within the environment of that aircraft, selectively presenting to on board crew travel instructions derived from the delivered package, with such presenting including delivery one or more instructional components in the form of aural instruction, textual instruction and map-display visual instruction, and
• from on board the aircraft, and with respect to the received instructional package, and about the necessity for further instructional information being transmitted from the database, tracking the aircraft's response to the delivered instructions in a manner which furnishes advisories and warnings at least within the environment of the aircraft respecting any aircraft movement deviation from received ground-control instructions.