Flight Management System RNP Accuracy Anticipation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pilots face difficulty in accessing and anticipating changes in the Required Navigation Performance (RNP) accuracy levels for aircraft geolocation, which are crucial for safe navigation, especially in obstacle-rich environments and adverse weather conditions, due to varying satellite coverage and inertial drift issues.
Innovation Solution
An onboard flight management system that continuously calculates and displays geolocation data and RNP accuracy demands graphically along the aircraft's trajectory, using color codes to indicate current and future accuracy requirements, allowing pilots to anticipate and adjust navigation characteristics up to 20 minutes in advance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If pilots rely on conventional navigation systems without continuous RNP accuracy display, then the system complexity is reduced, but pilots cannot anticipate changes in RNP accuracy levels timely
Solution Approach 1:
The system calculates and displays future RNP accuracy demands along the trajectory in advance, allowing pilots to anticipate changes before they occur. The display shows multiple trajectory portions with their respective RNP requirements, enabling proactive navigation adjustments rather than reactive responses.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention adds a temporal dimension to RNP information display by showing not only current but also future RNP accuracy demands along the flight trajectory. This transforms static navigation information into dynamic, time-progressed data that helps pilots plan ahead.
2Reliability
If the system displays detailed RNP accuracy demands along the entire trajectory, then navigation safety is improved, but the ease of operation decreases due to information overload
Solution Approach 1:
The trajectory is divided into multiple portions, each with its own RNP accuracy requirement displayed separately. This segmentation allows pilots to process information in manageable chunks rather than overwhelming them with a single complex data set, while still providing complete trajectory information.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the trajectory are displayed with their specific local RNP requirements. Each segment shows the accuracy demand appropriate to that particular portion of the flight path, allowing pilots to focus on relevant local requirements rather than uniform global information.
3Productivity
If pilots are not provided with advance RNP accuracy information, then the device complexity is minimized, but the productivity decreases due to delayed navigation adjustments
Solution Approach 1:
By displaying future RNP accuracy demands in advance along the trajectory, the system enables pilots to make navigation adjustments proactively rather than reactively. This preliminary information allows for smoother, more efficient flight operations without last-minute maneuvers.
Solution Approach 2:
The flight management system automatically calculates and presents RNP accuracy information in a format that directly supports pilot decision-making. The system serves itself by providing the exact information pilots need for efficient navigation management without requiring additional external tools or complex manual calculations.
Data Source
AI summary
An onboard flight management system in an aircraft comprises means for continuously calculating first geolocation data, from data received from at least one external geolocation device, comprising a current position and future positions of an aircraft along a trajectory sequenced in several portions and comprising second data comprising demands required by an international navigation procedure called “Required Navigation Performance”, or RNP, for all the portions of the trajectory. The management system additionally comprises a means for displaying first and second data all the way along the trajectory, the first and second data being represented graphically and simultaneously on the said display means in order to enable the pilot to anticipate the flight characteristics for the aircraft and make them converge toward the required demands of the next trajectory portion.