Aircraft Flight Control Using Atmospheric Contamination Forecasts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing aircraft flight planning systems fail to accurately assess and avoid atmospheric contaminants like ice crystals, leading to potential engine blockages and instrument failures, and lack real-time data for effective trajectory adjustments.
Innovation Solution
An aircraft flight control system using machine learning and statistical models to estimate atmospheric contamination risk, incorporating spatial and temporal uncertainty calculations, provides real-time indications for adjusting flight trajectories to avoid hazards.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If basic weather parameters (temperature, precipitation, wind) are used for flight planning, then aircraft can avoid storms and dangerous weather, but atmospheric contaminants like ice crystals and dust cannot be detected, leading to engine blockages and instrument failures
Solution Approach 1:
The system integrates multiple detection capabilities into a single flight planning platform. The computing arrangement processes both basic weather parameters (temperature, precipitation, wind) and contaminant-specific data (ice crystal concentration, dust density, aerosol distribution) to provide comprehensive flight path recommendations that address both storm avoidance and contaminant avoidance in one unified system
2Reliability
If flight paths are adjusted to avoid hazardous phenomena, then aircraft safety is improved, but flight costs increase due to cancellations and re-routing
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary assessment of contaminant risk along proposed flight paths before the aircraft departs. By calculating contaminant exposure levels in advance using the provided weather data and flight plan, the system enables operators to make informed decisions about whether to proceed, delay, or reroute, avoiding unnecessary cancellations while ensuring safety
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides dynamic, real-time recommendations that can be adjusted as flight conditions change. The computing arrangement continuously evaluates the flight plan against current weather data and contaminant distributions, allowing operators to make timely adjustments to flight paths, altitudes, or timing to balance safety requirements with operational efficiency
3Measurement precision
If radar is used to detect ice crystals, then some ice events can be detected, but small particle sizes and short-lived events cannot be distinguished, making detection too late to prevent exposure
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses weather data from external sources to predict and map contaminant locations before the aircraft reaches them. By processing satellite imagery, radar data, and atmospheric models in advance, the computing arrangement creates a forecast of ice crystal and dust distributions along the flight path, providing early warning that enables proactive route adjustments rather than reactive responses
Solution Approach 2:
The system acts as an intermediary between raw weather data and flight decision-making. It processes and interprets complex atmospheric data including temperature profiles, humidity distributions, and wind patterns to infer contaminant locations and concentrations, translating this information into actionable recommendations for flight path adjustments
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided an aircraft flight control system comprising: a computing arrangement including an input interface and an output interface; wherein in operation the computing arrangement executes instructions to provide indications related to an estimated atmospheric contamination risk to at least one aircraft at selected locations and altitudes or pressures, by (i) receiving at least one aircraft flight plan data from the input interface; wherein at least one aircraft flight plan data includes at least one of time, a pressure or an altitude, a trajectory and a location representing at least one aircraft flight; (ii) determining the estimated atmospheric contamination risk using a measure of the at least one atmospheric contaminant for the at least one aircraft flight based upon a location, an altitude or pressure, a trajectory and a time information extracted from the at least one aircraft flight plan data; and (iii) providing, via the output interface, a resultant indication related to the estimated atmospheric contamination risk to the at least one aircraft.