Interactive Navigation Device Consolidating Flight Plans
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aircraft flight management systems (FMS) require pilots to navigate and modify flight plans across two distinct screens, making it difficult to follow trajectory alterations and compare active and temporary flight plans simultaneously.
Innovation Solution
An interactive navigation device that displays multiple flight plans and associated information on a single screen, allowing for graphical representation of flight plans with contiguous text fields, enabling easy comparison and modification of flight plans, including active, temporary, and secondary plans, with customizable display options and color coding for constraint compliance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If flight information is displayed on two distinct screens (ND and CDU), then information can be organized by function, but it becomes difficult for pilots to follow trajectory alterations and compare flight plans simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the navigation display (ND) and control display unit (CDU) functions into a single integrated display screen. This allows multiple flight plans (active, temporary, secondary) to be displayed simultaneously on one screen with their respective trajectory representations and associated text information, eliminating the need for pilots to switch between two separate screens and enabling direct visual comparison of different flight plans and their modifications.
2Loss of information
If multiple flight plans are displayed simultaneously on one screen, then comparison becomes easier, but screen clutter and information density increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the display into distinct visual zones: graphical trajectory representations for each flight plan, contiguous text information blocks associated with each trajectory, and separate control regions. Each flight plan is presented as a self-contained unit with its own visual elements, allowing multiple plans to coexist on the screen without excessive clutter while maintaining complete information for each plan.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes the full two-dimensional screen space by displaying trajectory representations graphically across the screen area, with associated text information positioned contiguously alongside each trajectory. This spatial arrangement in two dimensions allows multiple flight plans to be displayed simultaneously with adequate separation, preventing information overload while maintaining readability.
Data Source
AI summary
The subject of the invention is an interactive navigation device comprising at least one navigation screen making it possible to display a graphical representation of at least one flight plan, a flight plan being composed of points and of segments. The device comprises means for displaying several flight plans simultaneously on the navigation screen at the same time as flight information text fields associated with the points of the said flight plans, the flight information fields being displayed in a manner contiguous with the points associated with them so as to be able to compare them conveniently. The device also comprises means for displaying on the navigation screen flight information fields associated with the segments of the flight plans, the said flight information fields being displayed in a manner contiguous with the segments associated with them.