The present invention relates to a standby instrument fitted to the instrument panel of an aircraft detecting overloads. It applies notably in respect of the detection of overloads during a heavy landing. More generally, it applies in respect of the detection and indication of overloads of an aircraft in various types of environment.
Environmental or technical conditions may compel an aircraft, for example an airliner, to undergo a heavy landing. During such a landing an overload of the aircraft may impair its structure and jeopardize its integrity in respect of future flights. These possible overloads must therefore be detected and an alert must be transmitted.
Current systems for detecting heavy landing generally comprise:
These current systems are distributed systems having notably the following drawbacks:
An aim of the invention is notably to alleviate the aforesaid drawbacks. For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a standby instrument fitted to the instrument panel of an aircraft, comprising means for calculating and displaying flight information on the basis of data provided by associated sensors integrated into a standby system, the instrument comprising a module for detecting overload of the aircraft on the basis of the data provided for displaying the flight information.
The overload detection module uses for example the information provided by an inertial sensor, an overload detection corresponding to a heavy acceleration of the aircraft combined with at least one environmental information item provided by the associated sensors.
An environmental information item may be the altitude of the aircraft, the speed of the aircraft or else the inclination of the aircraft.
Advantageously, the standby instrument displays an overload detection signal, for example on the main screen which indicates the flight information.
The module stores for example the detections of overload arising in the flight phase, a secondary screen displaying the information relating to these detections.
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will become apparent with the aid of the description which follows offered in relation to appended drawings which represent:
Thus,
Airliners are therefore equipped with a standby instrument 4, of the electronic type, such as presented in
In the example of
The information provided by these sensors or this bus reaches processing means 46 internal to the standby instrument. These processing means utilize the information coming from the various external sensors or systems.
A prime function of a standby combined instrument such as illustrated by
A standby instrument according to the invention additionally comprises a module 403 for detecting overloads. This module 403 has the same information as the module 401 for calculating the flight parameters, this information coming from the various sensors 41, 42 and in particular the inertial sensor 43. The module 403 processes this information with the aim notably of detecting overloads. The overload information due for example to a heavy landing, to strong turbulence or to high load factors is provided by the inertial platform 43. In particular, an overload can be detected by an abrupt change of attitude and more particularly by an abrupt rotational or translational movement, a movement readily detectable by an inertial platform. The module 403 is additionally able to corroborate this abrupt movement information with flight parameters, such as the altitude of the airplane, its speed, its inclination or else the speed of the air. The module 403 can thus make the connection between an abrupt movement of the airplane, its situation and its environment. Thus, an abrupt movement detected in the landing phase indicates an overload on landing. The module 403 provides the overload detection information item to the display control module 402. Additionally, it retains in memory the overload detection for the use of the maintenance services.
The main screen is the screen which displays the standard information in the flight phase. This alert is, for example, disposed at the bottom of the screen and does not impair the display of the essential altitude, speed and attitude information of the airplane. This display is a real-time display since the alert is produced at the moment of the overload. A second mode of display presents the overload information item recorded. This information item, stored by the overloads processing module 403 is, for example, presented on an additional graphical page of the standby instrument, accessible in the maintenance phase. This additional graphical page can moreover display all the overloads that have occurred in the latest landing phase and also for the previous landing phases.
A standby instrument according to the invention therefore makes it possible notably:
Advantageously, the detection of the overloads is independent of the primary devices, that is to say of the primary viewing screens 2, 3 and of their associated sensors. Specifically, the standby instrument according to the invention combines the overload information, determined by a heavy acceleration, with the flight information available in an autonomous manner on the standby instrument.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
0608332 | Sep 2006 | FR | national |
This is a U.S. National Phase application under 35 U.S.C. §371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2007/059779, filed on Sep. 17, 2007, and claims benefit of French Patent Application No. 0608332, filed on Sep. 22, 2006, both of which are incorporated herein. The International Application was published on Mar. 27, 2008 as WO 2008/034795 under PCT Article 21(2).
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/EP2007/059779 | 9/17/2007 | WO | 00 | 9/9/2009 |