Avionics Display Architecture for Pitot Failure Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy aircraft often lack sufficient redundancy in pitot pressure sensing systems, leading to unreliable data and increased costs for retrofitting, which can result in misleading flight information and impaired critical aircraft functions.
Innovation Solution
A reversionary electronic flight display architecture with dual displays operating independently, sharing data via a communication connection, and powered by separate sources, utilizing dissimilar sensor data to detect and correct failures, ensuring reliable flight data through redundant systems and automatic switching between primary and multi-function display modes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional aircraft implement redundant pitot sensing architecture with dual redundant probes and monitored heating elements, then reliability of pitot pressure data is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system (the electronic flight display with integrated pitot system monitoring) that mediates between the pitot pressure sensing system and the flight instrumentation. This intermediary continuously monitors pitot pressure data, compares it with other aircraft parameters, and can detect failures or obstructions, thereby improving reliability without requiring full redundant hardware architecture
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements continuous feedback monitoring of pitot pressure data through the electronic flight display. The system compares pitot pressure readings with other aircraft parameters and provides real-time feedback on system health, enabling detection of failures or obstructions and allowing for corrective action before critical failures occur
2Reliability
If legacy light aircraft are retrofitted with redundant pitot systems, then reliability of flight data is improved, but ease of manufacture and installation worsens
Solution Approach 1:
The electronic flight display serves multiple functions: it displays flight information, monitors pitot pressure data, detects system failures or obstructions, and can switch between different data sources. This multi-functionality allows a single system to provide both the primary flight display and the redundant monitoring capability, eliminating the need for separate redundant hardware installations in legacy aircraft
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines the pitot system monitoring and failure detection functionality with the electronic flight display system. By merging these functions into a single integrated system rather than adding separate redundant hardware, the retrofit process becomes simpler and more cost-effective while still providing the necessary reliability improvements
3Reliability
If electronic flight display uses reversionary architecture with dual displays and separate power sources, then reliability is improved to meet FAR 23.1311(b), but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic switching capability between primary and backup display modes. The electronic flight display can automatically transition between different operational states and data sources based on system conditions, providing reversionary functionality that meets regulatory requirements while managing complexity through software-controlled dynamics rather than static redundant hardware
Data Source
AI summary
The present general inventive concept relates to a system of method having an electronic flight display that meets the FAR 23.1311(b) regulatory requirement for redundant backup instruments in the cockpit. The present general inventive concept also provides a system and method to detect failures, obstructions, or improper operation of the aircraft pitot pressure sensing system using a combination of dissimilar sensor data that is independent from each other, e.g., allocated from different sources and employed for different purposes on different displays, and displays information on an avionics display screen.