초록 ▼

The present invention relates to a method and a device for monitoring the minimum flying altitude of an aircraft. The method comprises a phase for calculating a vertical flight profile describing the changing altitude of the aircraft during an arbitrary period taking into account its instantaneous s

The present invention relates to a method and a device for monitoring the minimum flying altitude of an aircraft. The method comprises a phase for calculating a vertical flight profile describing the changing altitude of the aircraft during an arbitrary period taking into account its instantaneous speed and its instantaneous angle of climb or descent; a phase for calculating a minimum vertical flight profile describing the changing minimum flying altitude over the future route of the aircraft during the period taking into account its instantaneous heading and its instantaneous speed, the minimum altitude values being determined for a coverage of the route of the aircraft during the period by disks centered on points on the route using requests to a database containing airspace zones corresponding to a minimum flying altitude, each request returning the zones intersected by a disk, the minimum altitude retained in a disk being the maximum value of the minimum altitudes for each type of zone returned; and a phase for generating a warning message based on the relative position of the vertical flight profile compared with the minimum vertical flight profile.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A method for monitoring the minimum flying altitude of an aircraft, comprising: calculating on processor a vertical flight profile describing the changing altitude of the aircraft during an arbitrary period taking into account its instantaneous speed (V) and its instantaneous angle of climb or de

1. A method for monitoring the minimum flying altitude of an aircraft, comprising: calculating on processor a vertical flight profile describing the changing altitude of the aircraft during an arbitrary period taking into account its instantaneous speed (V) and its instantaneous angle of climb or descent;a phase for calculating a minimum vertical flight profile describing the changing minimum flying altitude over the future route of the aircraft during the period taking into account its instantaneous heading and its instantaneous speed, the minimum altitude values being determined for a coverage of the route of the aircraft during the period; anda phase for generating a warning message based on the relative position of the vertical flight profile compared with the minimum vertical flight profile,whereinthe coverage of the route is provided by disks centered on points on the route, the radii of the disks ensuring that any point within the width of the route is contained in at least one disk, requests to a database including airspace zones returning the zones intersected by each of the disks, each zone corresponding to a minimum flying altitude, the minimum altitude retained in a disk being the maximum value of the minimum altitudes for each type of zone returned,the requests to the database return only the airspace zones having an operational interest relative to the heading followed by the aircraft with a tolerance about this heading, andthe requests to the database return air route segments, each segment corresponding to a minimum flying altitude in the outbound direction, to a minimum flying altitude in the return direction and to a segment width, a segment being returned only if it is oriented along the heading followed by the aircraft with a tolerance about this heading and if it fully contains the disk concerned, the minimum altitude retained for this type of zone in the disk concerned being the lowest of the minimum altitudes of the segments returned. 2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the minimum altitude retained over the portions of the route covered by several disks is the minimum value of the minimum altitudes for each disk. 3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein all the disks covering the future route of the aircraft have a same radius. 4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the centers of the disks covering the future route of the aircraft are spaced in pairs at a distance ensuring that any point on the route is contained in at least two disks. 5. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the width of the route is dependent on the current flight phase. 6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the requests to the database return only the airspace zones having another operational interest relative to the current flight phase. 7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the requests to the database return separate squares covering the surface of the Earth, each square corresponding to a minimum flying altitude, the minimum altitude retained for this type of zone in the disk concerned being the highest of the minimum altitudes of the squares returned. 8. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the requests to the database return circular zones divided into sectors, each sector corresponding to a minimum flying altitude, a circular zone being returned only if it fully contains the disk concerned, the minimum altitude retained for the circular zone returned being the highest of the minimum altitudes of its sectors intersecting the disk concerned and the minimum altitude retained for this type of zone in the disk concerned being the lowest of the minimum altitudes of the circular zones returned. 9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the requests to the database return restricted access zones, each zone corresponding to a minimum flying altitude, the minimum altitude retained for this type of zone in the disk concerned being the lowest of the minimum altitudes of the restricted access zones returned. 10. A device for implementing the method as claimed in claim 1, comprising: a module for calculating the vertical flight profile of the aircraft based on the kinematic data supplied by a navigation module;a module for calculating the minimum vertical flight profile by coverage of the route of the aircraft by disks, based on the kinematic data supplied by the navigation module and based on the minimum altitude data supplied by a database containing airspace zones corresponding to minimum flying altitudes;a module for determining the relative position of the vertical flight profile compared with the minimum vertical flight profile; andan audible and/or visual indication module for sending a warning message to the crew if the vertical flight profile falls below the minimum vertical flight profile. 11. The device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the audible and/or visual indication module sends a message when the vertical flight profile falls below the minimum vertical flight profile for a flying duration greater than a given period. 12. The device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the audible and/or visual indication module sends a message when the vertical flight profile falls below the minimum flight profile above a given altitude threshold. 13. The device as claimed in claim 10, wherein the audible and/or visual indication module sends a message when the relative position of the vertical flight profile compared with the minimum vertical flight profile changes, the relative position being determined at regular time intervals according to given criteria. 14. The device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the criteria used by the audible and/or visual indication module for regularly characterizing the relative position of the vertical flight profile compared with the minimum vertical flight profile depend on the preceding result and make it possible to limit the successive alternating of the result between two values. 15. The device as claimed in claim 10, wherein it comprises a man-machine interface module that can be used to disable the sending of warning messages to the crew. 16. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the width of the route is dependent on the current flight phase.