Wake Turbulence Display System for Flight Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increased air traffic growth poses challenges for pilots to visualize and avoid wake turbulence, leading to potential safety and performance degradation, as existing systems struggle to accurately represent wake turbulence in crowded airspace.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that process and display wake turbulence by determining its location, flight parameters, and type, using a processor to calculate an envelope and decay rate, and a display to show the severity through colored parallel lines perpendicular to the flight path, enhancing situational awareness for pilots.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If ADS-B targets are displayed to show surrounding traffic, then traffic awareness is improved, but wake turbulence visualization becomes difficult when the number of targets is numerous
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments wake turbulence information from the overall traffic display by introducing specialized visual symbols (conical shapes, shaded regions) that distinctly represent wake turbulence zones separate from individual aircraft targets. This segmentation allows pilots to quickly identify wake turbulence hazards without being overwhelmed by the complete set of ADS-B targets, resolving the contradiction between comprehensive traffic awareness and effective wake turbulence visualization.
2Loss of information
If wake turbulence information is displayed for each aircraft, then situational awareness is improved, but pilot workload increases due to interpretation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs color changes and varying shades within the wake turbulence symbols to encode different levels of wake turbulence severity and decay rates. By visually encoding this information through color intensity and shading patterns, the system presents comprehensive wake turbulence data without requiring pilots to perform complex interpretations, thus improving situational awareness while managing pilot workload.
3Reliability
If detailed wake turbulence parameters are calculated and displayed, then flight safety is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and displays only the most critical wake turbulence parameters (severity levels, decay rates, spatial envelopes) that directly impact flight safety, rather than presenting all available wake turbulence data. This selective extraction approach maintains high flight safety by focusing on essential information while reducing system complexity by eliminating unnecessary computational and display elements.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method to display, when within an envelope of an ownship's flight path, a symbol representing wake turbulence from another aircraft based on aircraft type and flight parameters received from the other aircraft, the symbol being formatted to indicate the severity of portions of the wake turbulence. The format is modified periodically in accordance with the aircraft's flight path and a decay rate of the wake turbulence.