1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for electronic flight instrumentation including sensing and display of information to enable control and management of aircraft.
2. Description of Related Art
Historically, flight instruments have been mechanical and electromechanical in nature. Conventional instruments fit their display into either a 2.25 inch or 3.125 inch round hole in aircraft instrument panels as a standard. The instrument was mounted to the panel from the rear and the display area was restricted to the round hole. The “Basic Six” instruments used for flight control are Altimeter, Airspeed, Attitude Indicator, Turn Coordinator, Vertical Speed Indicator and Heading Indicator. The instrument panel is normally configured to mount an array of standard instruments in close proximity, with only 0.25″ to 0.5″ spacing between the instruments. More recently, larger electronic displays have become available, using, for example, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology. Other recent technologies are Plasma Displays, Electroluminescent Displays, Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Displays and others. These displays do not fit the standard round holes in the instrument panel—they are typically rectangular in shape and are available in a range of sizes from 1″ diagonal to several feet in diagonal. Due to cost considerations and their flexible functionality, the more modern flight instruments employ electronic displays that are larger than the standard hole patterns and have multiple simulated standard instruments displayed simultaneously on a single large display (larger than the panel space area occupied by or allocated to single 2.25 inch or 3.125 inch instruments.) Electronic displays require a controller to present and manipulate the display. A sensor system may be connected to the controller, usually a microprocessor, to provide the information that is presented on the display. The sensor system can include a magnetometer (electronic compass), a rate gyro for pitch, a rate gyro for yaw, a rate gyro for roll, an accelerometer, an absolute pressure sensor for altitude and a differential pressure sensor for airspeed.
The present invention uses an LCD display (other electronic display technology may be used) and is configured to mount in existing 2.25 inch standard panel holes or 3.125 inch standard panel holes. The present invention includes a part that mounts behind the instrument panel—the instrument housing—and a part that mounts in front of the instrument panel—the bezel housing. The instrument housing contains the controller, network interfaces and an optional sensor system. The bezel housing contains the LCD display and a display interface printed circuit board (PCB). The size of the instrument housing behind the instrument panel allows placement in the standard array of standard holes. The size of the bezel housing in front of the instrument panel also allows placement in the standard array of standard holes. One objective of the present invention is to maximize the size of the display within the above described limitations. The instrument housing is secured to the instrument panel and is electrically connected to the display interface PCB through the standard hole. The bezel housing is secured to the instrument panel and the instrument housing.
As mentioned above, the instrument housing contains the controller, the network interfaces and the optional sensor system. The controller controls the display and instrument operation. It includes a microprocessor with Random Access Memory (RAM), program memory, optional database memory and support circuitry. The optional database memory may be a Universal Serial Bus (USB) memory stick, SD memory card or equivalent. The network interfaces include two RS-232 interfaces, one RS-422 interface and one RS-485 interface. One RS-232 interface may be connected to a Global Positioning System (GPS) that is external or installed internal to the instrument. One RS-232 or RS-422 interface may be connected to a remote Magnetometer (to minimize magnetic distortion from nearby ferrous metals, if necessary). One RS-232 or RS-422 interface may be connected to an input/output module to sense flight control positions, gear positions or radio navigation CDI signals. One RS-232 or RS-422 interface may be connected to a radio data module to obtain traffic and or weather information (for example, an ADS-B Universal Access Transceiver.) One RS-485 interface may be connected to other instances of the present invention. (For example, only one instance of the present invention may contain the optional sensor system, information from which is communicated to other instances of the present invention that do not contain the optional sensor system via the RS-485 network, in order to minimize cost while sharing sensor system information.) The optional sensor system includes a magnetometer (electronic compass), a rate gyro on each axis, a three axis linear accelerometer, an absolute pressure sensor, a differential pressure sensor and a sensor system controller. Additional network interfaces may include Ethernet, USB and ARINC429. RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, USB and ARINC429 are serial network interfaces.
As mentioned above, the bezel housing contains the LCD display and the LCD interface PCB. Additionally, a user accessible USB port is placed on the LCD interface board next to the LCD in order to facilitate instrument software updates and database uploads (for example, terrain information) and downloads (for example, recorded flight parameters). User accessible switches are placed next to the LCD as well to allow instrument control by the user.
An array of electronic flight instruments may be used to replace the “Basic Six” instruments. Only one of the instruments may contain a sensor system to minimize cost. More than one of the instruments may contain a sensor system for redundancy and enhanced reliability.
A single electronic flight instrument may be added to a standard instrument panel to act as a backup instrument to standard instruments in case of a failure of one of the standard instruments. In this case the user may select the functionality of the single electronic flight instrument from a menu of the “Basic Six” instruments and other instruments.
Other applications of the electronic flight instrument include terrain mapping, ground proximity warning information, weather display, traffic display, flight data recording, navigational display, G-meter, flight timer/clock and airman information display. The function of the instrument may be determined by menu selection, software importation via the front panel USB connection or fixed by factory configuration.
As may be appreciated after reviewing the present specification, the present invention overcomes many problems associated with replacing traditional instruments within a standard hole and hole array in an instrument panel and facilitates the in flight replacement of a failed instrument.
The present invention may be better understood, and its many features and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the attached drawings.
Other instruments besides the “Basic Six” that may be selected are G-meter, Clock/Timer, Terrain display, Traffic display, Weather display, ADS-B display, Course Deviation Indicator (CDI), Automatic Direction Finder (ADF), Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI), etc.