Aircraft Diversion Route Planning for Safe Landing Weight
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Solution Overview
Problem
In emergency situations, aircraft pilots face a high workload in diverting from an original flight plan, requiring them to manage multiple pieces of flight-related information quickly, which can lead to pilot error due to stress and the mental burden of piecing together information from various displays.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a display device, input device, and processing system that determines a safe diversion route to a destination by considering safety thresholds, aircraft characteristics, and constraints, displaying a graphical representation of the route to reduce pilot workload and ensure safe landing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the pilot manually analyzes multiple flight-related information sources to determine a safe diversion route, then the route planning can be customized and flexible, but the pilot's workload increases and the time required to make a safe diversion decision increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically retrieves flight-related information from multiple sources including flight management systems, weather systems, and air traffic control systems without requiring manual pilot intervention. The processing system autonomously analyzes this data to determine safe diversion routes, allowing the system to serve itself by eliminating the need for pilots to manually gather and process information from numerous displays and instruments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines multiple distributed information sources into a unified processing framework. By merging data from flight management systems, weather systems, air traffic control systems, and other sources into a single processing system, the patent consolidates the scattered information that pilots would otherwise need to mentally piece together from different displays, thereby reducing operational complexity.
2Loss of time
If the pilot quickly processes multiple flight-related information sources during an emergency diversion, then the response time is reduced, but the likelihood of pilot error increases due to stress and information overload
Solution Approach 1:
The processing system continuously monitors flight-related information from multiple sources and provides real-time feedback to the pilot regarding safe diversion routes. The system retrieves current weather conditions, aircraft performance data, and air traffic control information, then processes this data to determine routes that satisfy safety thresholds, providing ongoing feedback that reduces the cognitive burden on pilots during emergency situations.
Solution Approach 2:
The processing system acts as an intermediary between the multiple information sources and the pilot. Rather than requiring the pilot to directly interface with numerous complex systems and displays, the processing system mediates by automatically gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing information from flight management systems, weather systems, and air traffic control systems, then presenting processed diversion route recommendations to the pilot.
3Reliability
If the system automatically determines the diversion route by processing multiple information sources, then the pilot's workload is reduced and decision accuracy improves, but the system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into distinct functional modules: a flight management system that provides aircraft performance data, a weather system that provides meteorological information, an air traffic control system that provides traffic data, and a processing system that integrates and analyzes this information. By segmenting the overall system into specialized subsystems, each component can be independently developed, maintained, and validated, managing complexity while achieving reliable automated diversion route determination.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are provided for generating a route that facilitates navigating a vehicle to a diversion destination while satisfying applicable safety thresholds or other constraints, such as a maximum landing weight. One exemplary method of facilitating an aircraft landing at a diversion airport involves obtaining a current position of the aircraft, identifying a landing threshold influenced by a characteristic of the aircraft, obtaining one or more constraints associating with diverting to the diversion airport, and determining a route from the current position to the diversion airport based at least in part on the landing threshold and the one or more constraints. The route satisfies the constraints and results in a predicted value for the aircraft, e.g., a predicted aircraft landing weight, that satisfies the landing threshold. A graphical representation of the route is displayed on a display device onboard the aircraft.