Aircraft Flight Management Assembly with Auxiliary Path Prediction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current avionic flight management architectures for aircraft are inadequate in terms of availability and integrity, particularly for critical operations like RNP-AR and reduced crew operations, due to limitations in path computation and error handling.
Innovation Solution
A dual-level flight management assembly with a primary flight management system for long-term path computation and an auxiliary computer for short-term path prediction, allowing for enhanced safety and reduced costs by separating computations and increasing redundancy only where necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a conventional architecture with only two flight management systems is used, then the device complexity is reduced, but the reliability and integrity of path computation are insufficient for critical operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the flight management system into two independent functional segments: the Flight Management System (FMS) responsible for long-term reference path computation, and the auxiliary computer responsible for short-term predictive path computation. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, with the auxiliary computer providing enhanced reliability for critical operations without requiring the entire FMS architecture to be replicated, thus improving reliability while controlling complexity.
2Reliability
If a third flight management system is added to improve reliability, then the reliability of path computation is improved, but the cost and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the short-term path computation function from the traditional FMS architecture and places it in a separate auxiliary computer. This extraction allows the critical short-term computation to be handled by a dedicated component with appropriate redundancy and integrity monitoring, while the main FMS continues to handle long-term planning. This approach achieves the reliability improvement of having multiple independent computation paths without the cost and complexity of adding a third complete FMS.
Solution Approach 2:
The auxiliary computer acts as an intermediary component between the FMS and the flight control systems. It receives the long-term reference path from the FMS, computes short-term predictive paths, and provides guidance to the flight control systems. This intermediary role allows the system to benefit from dual-computation redundancy for critical operations while maintaining a clear functional hierarchy and avoiding the need for three complete FMS units.
3Measurement precision
If the flight management system performs detailed short-term path computations, then the path accuracy is improved, but the computation time and processing load increase
Solution Approach 1:
The FMS performs preliminary computation of the long-term reference path in advance, based on the flight plan and predicted wind conditions. This pre-computed reference path is then used by the auxiliary computer to quickly generate short-term predictive paths. By performing the computationally intensive long-term planning in advance and using it as a foundation for shorter-term computations, the system achieves high path accuracy without requiring excessive computation time during critical flight phases.
Data Source
AI summary
A flight management assembly for an aircraft includes at least one flight management system and at least one display device, the flight management system configured to manage at least one flight plan of the aircraft and one long-term reference path of the aircraft. The flight management assembly additionally includes an auxiliary computer, the auxiliary computer being separate from and independent of the flight management system, the auxiliary computer linked to the flight management system and to the display device, the auxiliary computer configured to perform prediction computations to generate at least one short-term path, from at least the long-term reference path received from the flight management system and from current flight parameters of the aircraft and from piloting setpoints of the aircraft.