High-Lift Flight Control Surface Indicator Design
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for presenting information about high-lift flight control surfaces to flight crews are cumbersome and prone to misinterpretation, especially during high-workload phases like take-off and landing, leading to potential operational errors.
Innovation Solution
A data processor-driven system that generates an indicator on a display device to show the commanded configuration and corresponding position of high-lift flight control surfaces, using graphical elements like analog scales, progress bars, and color-coded connectors to clearly indicate the correlation between commanded and actual positions, reducing pilot workload and misinterpretation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing methods are used to present information about high-lift flight control surfaces, then the flight crew receives information about commanded configurations and positions, but the information requires significant flight crew attention and is prone to misinterpretation
Solution Approach 1:
The indicator is segmented into distinct visual components: a first portion representing the commanded configuration and a second portion representing the commanded position. This segmentation allows flight crew to quickly identify and process specific information elements without being overwhelmed by a monolithic display, thereby reducing workload while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs color-coded graphical connectors (e.g., green, yellow, red) to visually indicate the status correlation between commanded and actual positions. This use of color changes enables flight crew to instantly grasp system status and potential discrepancies without requiring detailed analysis, significantly reducing cognitive workload and improving interpretation reliability.
2Adaptability or versatility
If discrete numbers are used to identify flap and slat configurations, then the configurations can be identified through simple numbers, but the same number can correspond to different flaps and/or slats positions depending on whether the aircraft is about to take-off or about to land
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the display of commanded configuration and commanded position into a single integrated indicator. This combination ensures that both pieces of information are always presented together, eliminating the ambiguity where a discrete number could correspond to different positions. The merged display maintains configuration flexibility while preventing information loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback by visually connecting the commanded configuration to its corresponding commanded position through a graphical connector. This feedback mechanism ensures that flight crew can verify the relationship between configuration number and actual position, preventing misinterpretation while maintaining the adaptability of discrete configuration numbering.
3Loss of information
If multiple separate indicators are used to show commanded configuration and commanded position, then each piece of information can be displayed, but the correlation between commanded configuration and commanded position is not clearly indicated
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple information elements (commanded configuration and commanded position) into a single integrated indicator display. This merging maintains complete information presentation while eliminating the need for multiple separate indicators, thereby reducing display complexity and improving overall system clarity.
Solution Approach 2:
A graphical connector acts as an intermediary element within the indicator, visually linking the commanded configuration portion to the commanded position portion. This intermediary element clearly indicates the correlation between the two pieces of information without requiring separate displays, thus maintaining information completeness while simplifying the overall display structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, devices and methods a for use with one or more high-lift flight control surfaces (24) of aircraft are disclosed. One exemplary method comprises receiving data representative of a commanded configuration (48) for a high-lift flight control surface (24); and on a display device (14) of the aircraft, showing an indicator (30) indicating the commanded configuration and a corresponding commanded position (50) for the high-lift flight control surface (24). The indicator (30) graphically indicates a correlation between the commanded configuration (48) and the corresponding commanded position (50) for the high-lift flight control surface (24).