Avionic Display Symbology for Forecast Sonic Boom Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current avionic systems lack effective tools to predict and mitigate overpressure events caused by sonic booms during supersonic aircraft flight, particularly over land, where regulatory restrictions are stringent due to noise concerns, and existing solutions do not adequately provide real-time feedback for pilots to avoid or minimize sonic boom impacts.
Innovation Solution
An avionic display system that generates symbology and graphics on HNAV or VNAV displays to predict sonic booms exceeding a boom tolerance threshold, providing flight parameter margins such as minimum altitudes and maximum speeds to avoid overpressure events, and suggests preemptive actions to pilots, utilizing a combination of onboard calculations and remote data sources like cloud-based forecasting services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If supersonic flight is permitted over land, then flight speed and productivity are improved, but overpressure events and noise damage to ground structures occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary prediction of sonic boom overpressure events using forecast data before the aircraft reaches problematic areas. By calculating predicted overpressure events in advance and displaying them to pilots, the system enables proactive flight path adjustments to avoid exceeding boom tolerance thresholds, thereby preventing harmful overpressure events while maintaining supersonic flight capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes a feedback loop by continuously monitoring forecast overpressure events and providing real-time visual feedback to pilots through symbology on navigation displays. This feedback mechanism allows pilots to adjust flight parameters (altitude, speed, heading) to remain within acceptable overpressure limits, resolving the contradiction between maintaining supersonic speed and preventing harmful ground effects
2Object-affected harmful factors
If boom tolerance thresholds are enforced to protect ground structures, then harmful effects are reduced, but flight flexibility and ease of operation are restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary layer between the pilot and the complex boom tolerance regulations. Instead of requiring pilots to directly interpret and comply with detailed boom tolerance thresholds and regulatory restrictions, the system automatically processes forecast data, performs overpressure event predictions, and presents simplified visual guidance. This intermediary processing maintains ground structure protection while significantly improving ease of operation
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by automatically calculating predicted overpressure events and providing guidance information without requiring external computational resources or complex pilot calculations. The onboard system uses available forecast data and aircraft parameters to generate real-time overpressure predictions, allowing pilots to independently make informed decisions while ensuring compliance with boom tolerance thresholds
Data Source
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AI summary
Avionic display systems (10) and methods (40) are provided for generating avionic displays including symbology (74, 76, 78, 92, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100) and other graphics pertaining to overpressure events, which are forecast to occur during supersonic aircraft flight. In various embodiments, the avionic display system includes a display device (14) on which an avionic display (34, 36, 37) is produced. A controller architecture (12) is operably coupled to the display device. Storage media (16) contains computer-readable code or instructions that, when executed by the controller architecture, cause the avionic display system to determine whether an overpressure event is forecast to occur due to the predicted future occurrence of a sonic boom, which has a magnitude exceeding a boom tolerance threshold. When the controller architecture determines that an overpressure event is forecast to occur, the avionic display system further generates symbology on the avionic display indicative of or visually signifying the forecast overpressure event.