Windshear warning system and indicator

Claim 2

A windshear warning system for automatically indicating the existence of windshear and its velocity between an aircraft and the airfield of intended landing, comprising: a. means for determining true velocity data of said airplane through the air, including electrical circuit means to produce an electrical signal equivalent to said data, b. means for determining said airplane ground velocity intelligence, including electrical circuit means to produce an electrical signal equivalent to said intelligence, c. means for determining surface wind velocity and runway heading information of said airfield, including electrical circuit means to produce an electrical signal equivalent to said information, d. electrical computer means having input means for receiving said data signal, said intelligence signal and said information signal and for calculating said signals into an electrical signal representing said windshear velocity and e. indicating means electrically connected to said computer means for digital display of said windshear velocity signal.

Claim 3

A windshear warning system for automatically indicating the existence of windshear and its velocity between an aircraft and the airfield of intended landing as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for determining true velocity data of said airplane through the air is carried on the airplane and comprises instrumentation including a. means for sensing airspeed, b. means for sensing ambient temperature, c. means for sensing aircraft altitude and d. interconnecting means between said airspeed means and said temperature and altitude means for correcting said airspeed thereby so that said velocity data is obtained and whereby said velocity data serves as input to said electrical circuit means included with said means for determining true velocity data for producing said electrical signal equivalent to said input.

Claim 4

A windshear warning system for automatically indicating the existence of windshear and its velocity between an aircraft and the airfield of intended landing as claimed in claim 2 wherein said means for determining surface wind velocity and runway heading information is located at said airfield of intended landing and wherein said information is transmitted to said aircraft.

Claim 5

A windshear warning system for automatically indicating the existence of windshear and its velocity between an aircraft and the airfield of intended landing as claimed in claim 3 wherein aid indicating means comprises a keyboard for manual input of said surface wind velocity and runway heading information transmitted to said aircraft.

Claim 6

A windshear warning system for automatically indicating the existence of windshear and its velocity between an aircraft and the airfield of intended landing as claimed in claim 4 wherein said means for determining airplane ground velocity intelligence is derived from a radar Doppler instrument carried by said aircraft.

Claim 7

A windshear warning system for automatically indicating the existence of windshear and its velocity between an aircraft and the airfield of intended landing as claimed in claim 4 wherein said means for determining airplane ground velocity intelligence is located at an associated distance-measuring equipment ground station and wherein said intelligence is transmitted to said aircraft.

Claim 8

A windshear warning indicating instrument having a windshear display means for aircraft comprising an electric circuitry including a. a first transducer for receiving airspeed, altitude and temperature information from said aircraft associated instrumentation, b. a second transducer for receiving ground velocity intelligence from associated aircraft-carried radar Doppler instrumentation or from associated radio-received ground-located distance-measuring equipment instrumentation, c. a third transducer for receiving said aircraft associated heading information and aircraft associated VHF omnidirectional range heading information, d. a fourth transducer for receiving runway heading information and airfield surface wind speed and direction information, e. computer means having input means connected to said first, second, third and fourth transducer for calculating said transducers information into three individual signals respectively representing a first signal equivaLent to said aircraft true airspeed corrected by the cosine of said aircraft heading minus said runway heading, second signal equivalent to said aircraft ground velocity, third signal equivalent to said airfield surface windspeed corrected by the cosine of said airfield surface wind vector minus said runway heading, and wherein said three signals are vectorially summed into a signal representing a vectorial value equivalent to a windshear vector in knots and f. limiter circuitry connected to said computer means for converting said vectorial value signal into a visual display by said windshear display means on said indicating instrument.

Claim 9

A windshear warning indicating instrument having a windshear display means for aircraft comprising an electric circuitry including a. a first transducer for receiving airspeed, altitude and temperature information from said aircraft associated instrumentation, b. a second transducer for receiving ground velocity intelligence from associated aircraft-carried radar Doppler instrumentation or from associated radio-received ground-located distance-measuring equipment instrumentation, c. a third transducer for receiving said aircraft associated heading information and aircraft associated VHF omnidirectional range heading information, d. a fourth transducer for receiving runway heading information and airfield surface wind speed and direction information, e. computer means having input means connected to said first, second, third and fourth transducer for calculating said transducers information into three individual signals respectively representing a first signal equivaLent to said aircraft true airspeed corrected by the cosine of said aircraft heading minus said runway heading, second signal equivalent to said aircraft ground velocity, third signal equivalent to said airfield surface windspeed corrected by the cosine of said airfield surface wind vector minus said runway heading, and wherein said three signals are vectorially summed into a signal representing a vectorial value equivalent to a windshear vector in knots and f. limiter circuitry connected to said computer means for converting said vectorial value signal into a visual display by said windshear display means on said indicating instrument.

Claim 10

A windshear warning indicating instrument as claimed in claim 7 wherein said fourth transducer for receiving runway heading information and airfield surface wind direction and speed is electrically interconnected with a mechanical manually operated keyboard or the like for adding said runway information and said airfield surface windspeed and direction information into said computer.

Claim 11

A windshear warning system and indicator device for aircraft comprising a computer for summing vectorial values received in proportional equivalency with one another in the form of electrical signals wherein a first signal represents true velocity of the aircraft through the air, a second signal represents airplane ground velocity, a third signal represents airfield surface wind velocity and a fourth signal represents runway heading information, and means for converting said computer vectorially resultant summed signal into a visual quantative display on said indicator device having a positive or negative value for direction indication wherein said positive value indicates a windshear having a general head-on and a negative value indicates a windshear having a general tailwind direction in reference to said aircraft.

Claim 12

A windshear warning system and indicator device for aircraft comprising a computer for summing vectorial values received in proportional equivalency with one another in the form of electrical signals wherein a first signal represents true velocity of the aircraft through the air, a second signal represents airplane ground velocity, a third signal represents airfield surface wind velocity and a fourth signal represents runway heading information, and means for converting said computer vectorially resultant summed signal into a visual quantative display on said indicator device having a positive or negative value for direction indication wherein said positive value indicates a windshear having a general head-on and a negative value indicates a windshear having a general tailwind direction in reference to said aircraft.

Claim 13

A windshear warning system and indicator device for aircraft as claimed in claim 9 wherein said quantative display on said indicator device is provided with light warning means for values of said quantative signal display having a predetermined severity.