Formation Flight Altitude Monitoring for Collision Warning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing collision avoidance systems like TCAS do not provide redundancy for monitoring aircraft safety during formation flights, where aircraft fly close to each other, increasing the risk of collision.
Innovation Solution
A monitoring system that integrates electronic circuitry into avionics computers to receive and compare barometric altitude information from leading and trailing aircraft, detecting inconsistencies in altitude differences to ensure compliance with a specific geometry that avoids collisions, and issuing warnings or disengaging from formation flight if necessary.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If aircraft fly close to each other in formation flight to reduce fuel consumption, then fuel efficiency is improved, but collision risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The collision avoidance function is segmented into two independent systems: TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) and the formation flight monitoring system. Each system independently monitors altitude differences but focuses on different operational contexts. This segmentation allows both systems to operate simultaneously without interfering with each other, providing redundant monitoring while maintaining fuel-efficient formation flight operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements beforehand cushioning by establishing a second layer of safety monitoring specifically tailored for formation flight scenarios. The formation flight monitoring system continuously checks altitude differences between lead and trailing aircraft and compares them against predefined safe separation distances, providing an additional safety buffer before a collision could occur.
2Reliability
If a second collision avoidance system is added for formation flights, then safety redundancy is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The formation flight monitoring system is designed with multi-functionality to reduce overall system complexity. It can operate in different modes: monitoring formation flights, monitoring conventional flights, or remaining inactive when not needed. The system automatically detects formation flight conditions and adjusts its monitoring parameters accordingly, serving multiple operational contexts with a single system architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The formation flight monitoring system essentially copies the core functionality of TCAS (altitude difference monitoring and warning generation) but adapts it specifically for formation flight scenarios. By replicating the proven TCAS architecture with formation-flight-specific parameters and logic, the system achieves redundancy without duplicating the entire collision avoidance infrastructure.
Data Source
AI summary
A monitoring system for an aircraft involved in a formation flight as a trailing aircraft or as a leading aircraft comprises electronic circuitry configured to repeatedly implement the steps of receiving barometric altitude information from the leading aircraft, receiving barometric altitude information from the trailing aircraft, computing a difference between the barometric altitude of the leading aircraft and the barometric altitude of the trailing aircraft, determining an inconsistency between the barometric altitude of the trailing aircraft and the barometric altitude of the leading aircraft, within the context of the formation flight, if the computed difference is greater than a height value of the vortex at a current position of the trailing aircraft, increased by a height margin, and commanding, if such an inconsistency is determined, a transmission of a warning in the cockpit of the aircraft.