Engine-Out Airport Selection With Terrain-Aware Glide Profiles
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current flight guidance systems for single-engine aircraft during engine out conditions fail to provide optimal airport selection and adequate visual indication of glide range, neglecting factors like approach type, runway length, weather, and terrain, making it cognitively demanding for pilots to ensure safe landing.
Innovation Solution
A flight guidance system that continuously processes aircraft and engine status data to determine the current location and trajectory, generates notifications for engine out conditions, computes optimal destination airports and paths, and presents visual glide profiles indicating aircraft performance in wind and energy loss, considering terrain and other critical factors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If a nearest airport function is provided in the FMS, then airport selection is automated, but it does not consider optimal approach type, runway length, weather, terrain, and remaining battery time
Solution Approach 1:
The FMS is enhanced to perform multiple functions: it not only identifies the nearest airport but also evaluates approach types, runway lengths, weather conditions, terrain characteristics, and battery time remaining. This multi-functional capability ensures comprehensive airport selection that considers all critical factors for safe engine-out landings.
2Loss of time
If airport selection is made quickly during EO condition, then response time is reduced, but cognitive load on pilot increases
Solution Approach 1:
The FMS performs self-service by automatically computing the optimal airport selection and glide path without requiring the pilot to manually evaluate multiple factors. The system independently processes approach types, runway lengths, weather, terrain, and battery time to generate recommendations, thereby reducing cognitive load on the pilot during the stressful engine-out condition.
3Device complexity
If visual indication of range is not provided, then display complexity is reduced, but pilot awareness of glide range is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs color-coded visual indicators to display glide range information intuitively. Different colors represent different ranges or conditions, allowing the pilot to quickly comprehend the aircraft's glide capability without requiring complex numerical data or multiple display elements. This enhances pilot awareness while maintaining display simplicity.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
Flight guidance systems and methods that provide an airport selection in response to an EO condition in a single engine plane. The airport selection takes into consideration factors such as optimal approach type, runway length, weather, terrain, remaining battery time, and the like. Additionally, various also generate and display a visual indication of a remaining glide range when the EO condition is happening; the remaining glide range determination is based, at least in part, on terrain.