Flight Planning Device for Lightweight Aircraft Maneuverability

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Solution Overview

Problem

High-altitude lightweight aircraft face challenges in strategic and operational flight planning due to environmental and weather conditions, requiring advanced systems to ensure maneuverability and safety while minimizing operational restrictions.

Innovation Solution

A device that processes aircraft and weather data to simulate flight trajectories, generating a flight plan that considers the aircraft's capabilities and environmental factors, including wind direction, wind speed, and altitude profiles, to determine optimal flight corridors and times, ensuring the aircraft can maintain its desired route and altitude.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If flight planning is performed with detailed consideration of weather conditions and aircraft capabilities, then operational reliability is improved, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoperational reliabilityVSAvoiddevice complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The flight planning device is segmented into distinct functional modules: a data acquisition module for collecting aircraft and weather data, a simulation module for modeling flight trajectories, and an analysis module for determining maneuverability. This modular segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall system reliability without excessive complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary simulation of flight trajectories before actual flight operations. By pre-simulating various flight paths and assessing maneuverability under different weather conditions, the system prepares optimal flight plans in advance, ensuring operational reliability while keeping the actual flight control system relatively simple.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Reliability

If simulation of flight trajectories is performed to assess maneuverability, then flight safety is improved, but computing time and complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveflight safetyVSAvoidcomputing time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The simulation focuses on critical aspects of flight maneuverability rather than complete physical accuracy. The system evaluates key parameters such as wind impact, altitude changes, and basic aircraft performance limits, providing sufficient safety assessment without requiring exhaustive computational modeling of all flight dynamics.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses simplified parameter representations for aircraft performance and weather conditions. By working with aggregated parameters (e.g., overall maneuverability indices, average wind conditions along flight paths) rather than detailed spatial-temporal variations, the computation time is reduced while maintaining adequate safety assessment capability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Object-affected harmful factors

If comprehensive weather data analysis is conducted, then conflict with environmental conditions is reduced, but data processing complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveconflict with environmental conditionsVSAvoiddata processing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Object-affected harmful factorsVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the most relevant weather parameters needed for flight safety assessment, such as wind speed and direction, temperature, and precipitation. By filtering out unnecessary weather data details, the system reduces data processing complexity while still effectively identifying and avoiding harmful environmental conditions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The weather data processing system is designed to handle multiple types of weather conditions and aircraft scenarios using a unified analysis framework. This universal approach allows the same processing logic to assess various weather situations (wind, rain, temperature extremes) without requiring separate complex processing paths for each condition type.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3931813B1Device for producing a flight plan for lightweight aircraft
Publication Date: 2024.12.04 AALTO HAPS LTD
  • EP3931813B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP3931813B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4

AI summary

A device (100) is specified for producing a flight plan for lightweight aircraft (200). The device comprises a first interface (110), a second interface (120), and a processing unit (140). The first interface (110) is configured to receive aircraft data relating to the lightweight aircraft (200), wherein the aircraft data at least contain flight properties and functions of the lightweight aircraft. The second interface (120) is configured to receive weather data from a weather information source (300), wherein the weather data contain at least weather data from the past and contain at least air movements in an altitude profile between a maximum altitude of the lightweight aircraft and the Earth's surface. The processing unit (140) is configured to compare the aircraft data to the weather data and to ascertain whether the lightweight aircraft is manoeuvrable in the case of the received weather data and on the basis of the aircraft data.