US 7,120,540 B2Granted

Onboard terrain anticollision display device

AssigneeThales

InventorHugues Meunier

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Abstract

Terrain anticollision equipment generally uses a display device showing a two-dimensional synthetic map of the terrain overflown by the aircraft and in which the relief is shown by superposed slices assigned false colors representative of the magnitude of the risk of collisions. The allocation of the false colors and/or the positions of the slices is referenced with respect to a reference display altitude related to the instantaneous altitude of the aircraft or to a short term forecast altitude for the aircraft, each of the referencings having its own advantages as a function of the situation in progress for the aircraft. Here it is proposed that the reference display altitude be made to vary, with gentle transitions, with no visible jerks on the screen, as a function of the aircraft's situation deduced from the flight parameters so as to have, at any moment for the crew, the most pertinent possible and the most useful possible map having regard to the instantaneous situation vis à vis the risks of collision.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A display device for terrain anticollision equipment carried onboard an aircraft detecting the risks of collision of the aircraft with the terrain and/or ground obstacles by comparison, of at least one protection envelope constructed around the short term predicted trajectory of the aircraft, with a representation of an envelope of the terrain and/or of the ground obstacles overflown and by detection of the intrusion, into the said protection envelope or envelopes, of the terrain and/or of the ground obstacles overflown, said display device displaying, on one or more screens installed onboard, an image representing in at least two dimensions of the envelope of the terrain and/or of the obstacles, in the form of superposed slices assigned false colors and/or various textures and/or symbols referenced with respect to a reference display altitude, and comprising:

means for adjustment that vary the reference display altitude when a risk of terrain collision is detected as a function of:
the slopes of the trajectory of the aircraft at the instant of detection of a risk of terrain collision and at the present instant,
a short term predicted altitude for the aircraft;
and
the instantaneous altitude of the aircraft.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.