Process and apparatus for facilitating the landing of a vehicle on a landing surface

Claim 2

A landing aid instrument for assisting pilots in the manual control of a vehicle such as an aircraft while landing on a landing surface in which the aircraft has means for detecting the relative distance between the vehicle and the landing surface and the rate of descent of the vehicle, comprising: means for displaying two normally spaced images in the peripheral field of vision of the pilot; means responsive to the d detecting means for moving the images toward one another in direct proportion to the rate of descent with the distance between the images being proportional to the distance between the vehicle and the landing surface to provide the pilot with a visual stimulus of the elevation of the vehicle above tHe landing surface and the rate of descent of the vehicle without the pilot having to focus his eyes on the instrument; in which the display means includes a normally transparent elongated layer of nematic liquid crystal material that is capable of forming opaque images that visually appear to be moving toward each other.

Claim 3

The landing aid instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein the means responsive to the detecting means includes a longitudinal electrode extending substantially the length of the layer and a plurality of separate transverse electrodes spaced along the length of the layer for sequentially passing electrical currents through the layer to form the images.

Claim 4

Apparatus for aiding a pilot in the manual control of a vehicle such as an aircraft while landing on a landing surface, comprising: two radiation projector means mounted to the vehicle projecting two radiation beams downward from the vehicle at fixed converging angles in which the beams crisscross to produce two spaced radiation spots on the landing surface which move toward each other at a rate directly proportional to the rate of descent to the distance between the vehicle and the landing surface; radiation sensing means mounted to the vehicle for sensing the distance between the spots and the rate of movement of the spots; visual display means responsive to the sensing means having two normally spaced images located in the peripheral field of vision of the pilot in which the images are moved toward each other in direct proportion to the movement of the spots with the distance between the images being directly proportional to the distance between the vehicle and the landing surface; and in which the visual display means includes a normally transparent elongated layer of nematic liquid crystal material that is capable to forming opaque images when an electric current is passed therethrough; and means for sequentially and in response to the sensing means passing electrical currents through the layer along the length of the layer to produce two opaque images that appear to be moving towards each other.

Claim 5

Apparatus for aiding a pilot in the manual control of a vehicle such as an aircraft while landing on a landing surface, comprising: two radiation projector means mounted to the vehicle projecting two radiation beams downward from the vehicle at fixed converging angles in which the beams crisscross to produce two spaced radiation spots on the landing surface which move toward each other at a rate directly proportional to the rate of descent to the distance between the vehicle and the landing surface; radiation sensing means mounted to the vehicle for sensing the distance between the spots and the rate of movement of the spots; visual display means responsive to the sensing means having two normally spaced images located in the peripheral field of vision of the pilot in which the images are moved toward each other in direct proportion to the movement of the spots with the distance between the images being directly proportional to the distance between the vehicle and the landing surface; and in which the visual display means includes a normally transparent elongated layer of nematic liquid crystal material that is capable to forming opaque images when an electric current is passed therethrough; and means for sequentially and in response to the sensing means passing electrical currents through the layer along the length of the layer to produce two opaque images that appear to be moving towards each other.

Claim 6

The apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein the means for passing electrical current through the crystal includes a longitudinal electrode extending substantially the length of the layer and a plurality of separate transverse electrodes spaced along the length of the crystal engaging the layer for passing electrical currents between the longitudinal and transverse electrodes and through the layer to form the images.