Patent Grant
8004427
Many, if not all, of today's systems and methods for guiding aircraft over taxiways and/or runways during departure and/or landing utilize constant lighting of runways and/or taxiways. This may include constant lighting of runway and taxiway centerlines, constant lighting of lead-out taxiway exit lines, constant lighting of runway lead-in lines, and/or constant lighting of other parts of the runways and/or taxiways. However, many if not all of these systems and methods may not dynamically change the lighting characteristics of the runway and/or taxiway lighting to dynamically guide the particular aircraft over the intended runway and/or taxiway path intended for that particular aircraft. This may lead to decreased efficiency and congestion on the runways and/or taxiways.
A system and/or method is needed to decrease one or more problems associated with one or more of the existing systems and/or methods for guiding an aircraft.
In one aspect of the disclosure, a airport lighting system may include: a broadcast device for broadcasting an intended path of an aircraft along at least one of a runway and a taxiway; a receiving device for receiving the broadcasted intended path of the aircraft along the at least one runway and taxiway; and an airport lighting device for dynamically changing lighting characteristics of the airport lighting device along the at least one runway and taxiway in order to dynamically guide the aircraft along the broadcasted and received intended path of the at least one runway and taxiway.
In another aspect of the disclosure, a method of dynamically guiding an aircraft is provided. In one step, an intended path of the aircraft may be broadcast along at least one of a runway and a taxiway. In another step, the broadcasted intended path of the aircraft along the at least one runway and taxiway may be received. In an additional step, the lighting characteristics of an airport lighting device along the at least one runway and taxiway may be dynamically changed to dynamically guide the aircraft along the broadcasted and received intended path of the at least one runway and taxiway.
The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out the disclosure. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the disclosure, since the scope of the disclosure is best defined by the appended claims.
The intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 may comprise at least one of the specific runways 22 and/or the specific taxiways 24 the aircraft 20 intends to take during at least one of push-off from a gate 34, taxing to the runways 22, moving over the runways 22 to arrive at a take-off runway 22, landing on a landing runway 22, moving over the runways 22 to arrive at a taxiway 24, and moving over the taxiways 24 to arrive at a destination gate 34. In one embodiment, the intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 may include the precise entire departure path of the aircraft 20 from pushing off from a specific gate 34, to taxing along a certain order of particular taxiways 24, to moving along a certain order of particular runways 22, to taking off from a particular take-off position on a particular runway 22. In another embodiment, the intended path 18 of the aircraft may include the precise entire arrival/landing path of the aircraft 20 from landing at a particular landing position on a specific landing runway 22, to moving over a certain order of particular runways 22, to taxing along a certain order of taxiways 24, to arriving at a certain destination gate 34.
The receiving device 14 may comprise a receiver for receiving the broadcasted intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 along the one or more runway 22 and/or taxiway 24. The receiving device 14 may be attached to and/or connected to the airport lighting device 16. The receiving device 14 may be used to receive the identification of the aircraft 20, the location of the aircraft 20, and/or the intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 along the one or more runway 22 and/or taxiway 24.
The airport lighting device 16, which may comprise any numbers of and types of lighting devices capable of illumination, may be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 along the one or more runway 22 and/or taxiway 24 in order to dynamically guide the aircraft 20 along the broadcasted and received intended path 18 of the one or more runway 22 and/or taxiway 24. The airport lighting device 16 may be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 to provide dynamic runway center-line lighting 38 to light up a center-line of the runway 22, to light up another portion of the runway 22, to light up an indication, to light up directions, and/or to light up written directions for the aircraft 20 to follow one or more runways 22 along the intended path 18. The airport lighting device 16 may be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 to provide dynamic taxiway lead-out lighting 40 to light up a portion of the taxiway 24 and/or runway 22, to light up an indication, to light up written directions, and/or to light up visual directions for the aircraft 20 to follow to get onto or off of a taxiway 24 in order to follow the intended path 18. The airport lighting device 16 may also be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 to provide dynamic runway lead-on lighting 42 to light up a portion of the taxiway 24 and/or runway 22, to light up an indication, to light up written directions, and/or to light up visual directions to guide the aircraft 20 onto, off of, and/or along a runway 22 on the intended path 18. The airport lighting device 16 may be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 by at least one of increasing lighting intensity, sequential flashing, flashing, color enhancements, enhancements, lighting up arrow directions, lighting up word directions, and lighting up path directions in order to dynamically guide the aircraft 20 along the intended path 18.
The aircraft 20 may comprise an autobraking system 44 which is pre-programmed to exit a landing runway 22 at a pre-defined landing runway taxiway 24 exit. The airport lighting device 16 may utilize optimum runway exiting 39 to exit the aircraft 20 off a landing runway 22 to a taxiway 24 as quickly as possible.
In one embodiment, the airport lighting device 16 may be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 to dynamically guide the aircraft 20 along its entire intended path 18 of departure including pushing off from a specific gate 34, taxing along a certain order of particular taxiways 24, moving along a certain order of particular runways 22, and taking off from a particular take-off position on a particular runway 22. In another embodiment, the airport lighting device 16 may be adapted to dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 to dynamically guide the aircraft 20 along its entire intended path 18 of arrival/landing from arriving/landing at a particular landing position on a specific landing runway 22, to moving over a certain order of particular runways 22, to taxing along a certain order of taxiways 24, to arriving at a certain destination gate 34.
In still another embodiment, the broadcasted intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 may comprise the precise entire departure path of the aircraft 20 from pushing off from a specific gate 34, to taxing along a certain order of particular taxiways 24, to moving along a certain order of particular runways 22, to taking off from a particular take-off position on a particular runway 22. In yet another embodiment, the broadcasted intended path 18 of the aircraft may comprise the precise entire arrival/landing path of the aircraft 20 from landing at a particular landing position on a specific landing runway 22, to moving over a certain order of particular runways 22, to taxing along a certain order of taxiways 24, to arriving at a certain destination gate 34.
In another step 50, the broadcasted intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 along the at least one runway 22 and/or taxiway 24 may be received. In one embodiment of step 50 the identification of the aircraft 20 may be received, the location of the aircraft 20 may be received, and/or the intended path 18 of the aircraft 20 along the at least one runway 22 and/or taxiway 24 may be received.
In an additional step 52, the lighting characteristics 36 of an airport lighting device 16 may be dynamically changed along the at least one runway 22 and/or taxiway 24 to dynamically guide the aircraft 20 along the broadcasted and received intended path 18 of the runway 22 and/or taxiway 24. Step 52 may utilize optimum runway exiting 39 to exit the aircraft 20 off a landing runway 22 to a taxiway 24 as quickly as possible. An autobraking system 44 of the aircraft 20 may be pre-programmed to exit the landing runway 22 at a pre-defined landing runway taxiway 24 exit. In one embodiment, as shown in
In yet another embodiment of step 52, the airport lighting device 16 may dynamically change the lighting characteristics 36 of the airport lighting device 16 to provide at least one of dynamic runway center-line lighting 38, dynamic taxiway lead-out lighting 40, and dynamic runway lead-on lighting 42 to guide the aircraft 20 along the intended path 18. In an additional embodiment of step 52, the airport lighting device 16 may dynamically change its lighting characteristics 36 by at least one of increasing lighting intensity, sequential flashing, flashing, color enhancements, enhancements, lighting up arrow directions, lighting up word directions, and lighting up path directions in order to dynamically guide the aircraft 20 along the intended path 18.
One or more embodiments of the disclosure may, by dynamically changing the lighting characteristics of the runway and/or taxiway lighting to dynamically guide the particular aircraft over the intended runway and/or taxiway path intended for that particular aircraft, lead to increased efficiency, less congestion, increased safety, and/or reduce one or more other problems of one or more of the prior art systems and/or methods.
It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the disclosure and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the following claims.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3706969 | Paredes | Dec 1972 | A |
| 5968106 | DeVlieg et al. | Oct 1999 | A |
| 6694249 | Anderson et al. | Feb 2004 | B1 |
| 6751545 | Walter | Jun 2004 | B2 |
| 6789010 | Walter | Sep 2004 | B2 |
| 6950037 | Clavier et al. | Sep 2005 | B1 |
| 7626513 | Goodman et al. | Dec 2009 | B2 |
| 7629601 | Glassner et al. | Dec 2009 | B2 |
| 20060227014 | Gannon | Oct 2006 | A1 |
| 20080007430 | Wang et al. | Jan 2008 | A1 |
| 20080204280 | Reason et al. | Aug 2008 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20090323320 A1 | Dec 2009 | US |
