초록 ▼

An aircraft collision-avoidance system utilizing a known-location navigational ground station to enable a primary aircraft to determine its own location and employing a known-location air surveillance radar including an interrogator to determine the location, velocity, course and altitude of a poten

An aircraft collision-avoidance system utilizing a known-location navigational ground station to enable a primary aircraft to determine its own location and employing a known-location air surveillance radar including an interrogator to determine the location, velocity, course and altitude of a potentially conflicting other aircraft. The technique utilizes the time between the inception of an interrogating pulse and the reception of a transponder response from the target aircraft to compute the position and altitude of said target aircraft, and employs storage of repeated timed samplings of the data and subsequent replacement of the data as a series of dots on a display to establish a line showing the relative motion of the target aircraft with respect to the primary aircraft. An alarm device is provided to direct aircrew attention to potential conflicts predicted by a data processor carried by the primary aircraft and forming part of the system.

대표청구항 ▼

A method of detecting a potential collision between a primary aircraft and a secondary aircraft flying in an area containing a known-location standard very-high-frequency omni-directional range-distance measuring ground station (or equivalent) and a known-location air surveillance radar of the rotat

A method of detecting a potential collision between a primary aircraft and a secondary aircraft flying in an area containing a known-location standard very-high-frequency omni-directional range-distance measuring ground station (or equivalent) and a known-location air surveillance radar of the rotating antenna type provided with an interrogator, the steps of: (1) determining on the primary aircraft the bearing angle and distance from said omnidirectional range-distance measuring ground station, whereby to establish the position of the primary aircraft, (2) calculating the radar range distance c between the radar and the primary aircraft, based on the known positions of the primary aircraft, the radar and the ground station, (3) receiving an interrogation pulse at the primary aircraft from the radar, (4) receiving at the primary aircraft the resultant transponder response signal from the secondary aircraft, (5) measuring the time difference between receipt of said interrogator pulse and said transponder response signal at the primary aircraft, (6) calculating the angle B between the bearing vector from the radar to the primary aircraft and the bearing vector from the radar to the secondary aircraft in accordance with said time difference as related to the known rotational period of the radar antenna, (7) receiving at the primary aircraft the side lobe energy of each primary radar pulse from the radar, (8) calculating the value x, which is the sum of the radar range distance between the radar and the secondary aircraft and the distance between the two aircraft, in accordance with the time difference at the primary aircraft between receipt at the primary aircraft of the side lobe energy of the primary radar pulse synchronous with the interrogation to which the secondary aircraft responds and receipt at the primary aircraft of the transponder response signal from the secondary aircraft, (9) calculating the distance from the secondary aircraft to the primary aircraft based on the known or previously calculated values of x, c and angle B, and (10) calculating the bearing angle from the secondary aircraft to the primary aircraft based on the known angle B, the known bearing angle from the radar to the primary aircraft and the previously calculated distances between the primary aircraft, the secondary aircraft and the radar, whereby to establish the positional data of the secondary aircraft with respect to the primary aircraft.