Method of generating an aircraft flight plan
AssigneeThales
InventorsFrançois Coulmeau, Olivier Friedmann, Jean-Christophe Jaillant
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of generating a flight plan including a number N-1 of segments SGi, i being an integer number between 2 and N. Segment SGilinks an auxiliary departure position to an auxiliary arrival position according to a route. The route is a straight line defined by a list of auxiliary route positions. Each route is stored in a database onboard the aircraft. The method includes a coupled determination of an auxiliary arrival position that is part of the auxiliary positions of at least one of the routes and of a route followed by the segment SGi+1. The coupled determination is produced from an auxiliary departure position and a route Ri, followed by the segment SGi.
Claims8
A method of generating a flight plan enabling an aircraft to link a departure airport having a geographical position to a destination airport having a geographical position, wherein
- the flight plan includes a number of segments (SGi) corresponding to a value of N-1, a segment corresponding to a route and being defined by an auxiliary departure position and an auxiliary arrival position, the route being an identified straight line defined by a list of corresponding auxiliary route positions, routes being stored in a database onboard the aircraft,
- the method comprises the following iterative steps executed from i to N-1, beginning at i=1:
- first identifying, using a processor, an auxiliary departure position and a route corresponding to a segment i, said segment ending at an arrival position to be determined;
- second identifying, using the processor, auxiliary route positions located on the route after the auxiliary departure position and in a limited area of predefined dimensions;
- determining, using the processor, potential auxiliary arrival positions, by inventorying the auxiliary route positions that are localized at intercepts between the route and other routes stored in the database;
- classifying, using the processor, the potential auxiliary arrival positions corresponding to the inventoried auxiliary route positions in a predefined order, said step of classifying comprising the steps of:
- determining, for each inventoried auxiliary route position, an exit axis linking the inventoried auxiliary route position to the geographical position of said destination airport;
- identifying, for each inventoried auxiliary route position, an interception route intercepting the route at the inventoried auxiliary route position;
- and
- determining, for each identified interception route, a geometric criteria between the interception route and a corresponding exit axis, the geometric criteria being associated with the interception route;
- selecting an auxiliary arrival position from the classified potential auxiliary arrival positions;
- selecting an interception route from the identified interception routes;
- and
- until i=N-1, adding 1 to i and returning to the first identifying step where (a) first identifying an auxiliary departure position corresponds to identifying the just selected auxiliary arrival position and (b) first identifying a route corresponding to a segment corresponds to identifying the just selected interception route.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.