Patents by Inventor Guy Deker

Guy Deker has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20130317739
    Abstract: A device and method for flight management of an aircraft along a flight plan comprises a plurality of waypoints comprising a computation of the temporal predictions determining the temporal situation of the aircraft for each waypoint of the flight plan, a temporal situation of the aircraft being defined by at least one set of information from among the group comprising the target time of transit at each waypoint the estimated minimum and maximum times of arrival at each waypoint, the estimated time of transit at the waypoint, and a formatting and display simultaneously presenting the temporal situations of the said plurality of waypoints
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 22, 2013
    Publication date: November 28, 2013
    Inventors: Francois COULMEAU, Guy DEKER, Xavier BLANCHON, Patrick MAZOYER
  • Patent number: 8565938
    Abstract: A method of optimizing a flight plan of an aircraft used in a flight management system of an aircraft is disclosed. This method makes it possible to constrain the real cost index of the mission executed to the optimal cost index CIopt predetermined by the aircraft operator, by acting on objectives ETAopt and EFOBopt of values of ETA and of EFOB to be achieved. Objectives are linked to this optimal cost index, in order to make the system return from a cost index CIm to the optimal cost index CIopt, while taking account of various constraints imposed by the ATC or the CTFM. Both constraints mext influence the cost index and constraints which limit the field of possible solutions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: François Coulmeau, Guy Deker, Hervé Goutelard
  • Patent number: 8457872
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for managing the flight of an aircraft flying along a trajectory and being subject to an absolute time constraint (on a downstream point) or relative time constraint (spacing with respect to a downstream aircraft), the said aircraft comprising a flight management system calculating a temporal discrepancy to the said time constraint, wherein the said method includes the following steps: the calculation of a distance on the basis of the temporal discrepancy, the modification of the trajectory: if the temporal discrepancy to the time constraint corresponds to an advance, the lengthening of the trajectory by the distance; if the temporal discrepancy to the time constraint corresponds to a delay, the shortening of the trajectory by the distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventor: Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 8396615
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for changing the path followed by an aircraft, the aircraft initially following a predefined path on the basis of a sequence of waypoints, the method allowing a subsequent return of the aircraft to the predefined path in the same direction or in the reverse direction. The method allows a possible return of the aircraft to the predefined path in the same direction such that the waypoints of the predefined path are projected onto a new path according to a projection function ensuring that the order of the sequence of the projected image points complies with the order of the sequence of the original waypoints. The projection of a waypoint already reached by the aircraft also is considered as having been reached. The projections of the waypoints on the new path are considered reached by the aircraft progressively as the latter progresses along the new path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Christophe Caillaud, Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 8352102
    Abstract: The subject of the invention is an interactive navigation device comprising at least one navigation screen making it possible to display a graphical representation of at least one flight plan, a flight plan being composed of points and of segments. The device comprises means for displaying several flight plans simultaneously on the navigation screen at the same time as flight information text fields associated with the points of the said flight plans, the flight information fields being displayed in a manner contiguous with the points associated with them so as to be able to compare them conveniently. The device also comprises means for displaying on the navigation screen flight information fields associated with the segments of the flight plans, the said flight information fields being displayed in a manner contiguous with the segments associated with them.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Guy Deker, Emmanuel Roux
  • Patent number: 8332145
    Abstract: Method for generating a flight speed profile of an aircraft (100) according to an RTA constraint, characterized in that it permanently calculates, at any point of the flight plan, a speed setpoint V?(X) of the aircraft determined on the basis of reference speed profiles, comprising at least a minimum speed profile Vmin(X), and a maximum speed profile Vmax(X). The method can also take into account an optimum speed profile Vopt(X) determined, for example, on the basis of a cost or performance index.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Benoît Dacre-Wright, Guy Deker, Xavier Blanchon
  • Patent number: 8306677
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for automatic detection of turbulence by a second aircraft, by information exchange between the second aircraft and at least a first aircraft. The first aircraft has means for transmitting information and the second aircraft has means for receiving the information transmitted by the first aircraft. The method includes the identification of information about turbulence liable to be encountered by the second aircraft, by analyzing the information received from the first aircraft. An alarm is activated on the basis of the turbulence information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2012
    Inventors: Guy Deker, Jérôme Sacle, François Coulmeau
  • Patent number: 8265806
    Abstract: Described is a method of updating meteorological information for an aircraft, which includes automatically providing a request by an on board computer (FMS, flight management system) for the meteorological data so as to anticipate the updating of the latter as soon as an update is available. This automation allows the crew to have the data ready for display and use without waiting, to reduce and smooth the workload of the crew by anticipating the request and the processing of these data, and to limit the potential confusion associated with the receipt, hitherto verbal, of the ATIS (Air Traffic Information Service) information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: François Coulmeau, Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 8170727
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for calculating an approach trajectory of an aircraft (200) to an airport The aircraft is slaveable in terms of trajectory, thrust and/or speed. The aircraft is able to advance at reduced engine revs. The airport has a runway The approach trajectory terminates in an impact point (205) on the runway and has a high-altitude descent segment (217) and an intermediate geometric segment (207), to which the aircraft is slaved in terms of trajectory and speed. A step of calculating a final approach segment (208) at reduced engine revs and a landing segment is performed with a greater thrust than the reduced revs so as to prepare a possible go-around (209), to which the aircraft is slaved in terms of thrust and speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventor: Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 8149141
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for automatically preparing an update of audio communication frequencies between aircraft and ATC stations on the ground, a method making it possible to reduce the communication time associated with the necessary frequency changes between control sectors, therefore limiting the frequency space requirement, and reducing the workload due to the manipulations and control of these frequency changes, both for the air traffic controllers and for the aircraft crews, and wherein the flight plan or the current trajectory followed by the aircraft is dynamically coupled with the geometry information of the control sectors overflown by the aircraft and that, thereby knowing the intersection points of the flight plan with the sector limits, the frequency changes and sector name are prepared before each change of sector, while warning the pilot of their imminence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2012
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: François Coulmeau, Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 8108186
    Abstract: Flight management systems can behave erratically when the distance measurements on which they are based are subject to value jumps because they liken these value jumps to movements of the aircraft performed at speeds exceeding the performance levels of the aircraft for which they were designed. To avoid this, the proposed flight management system uses a filter to spread the distance value jumps in time, over periods of the order of those needed for the aircraft to come through the distance differences that they represent. This filter replaces a value jump with a ramp making up the difference and corresponding to a movement that remains within the performance scope of the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2012
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Christophe Caillaud, Guy Deker, François Hoofd
  • Patent number: 7999699
    Abstract: The general field of the invention is that of systems for aiding the guidance of an aircraft on an airport. The system according to the invention comprises means for determining at least one element of the topology of the airport in relation to the position of the aircraft for selecting. Selecting means are provided by the pilot of the aircraft for the element. Generating means are provided to generate at least one guidance or safety set-point using the topological element. Presenting means are provided for the element or the associated set-point on a man-machine interface to the pilot of the aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Christophe Caillaud, Guy Deker, Nicolas Marty
  • Publication number: 20110137493
    Abstract: Method for generating a flight speed profile of an aircraft (100) according to an RTA constraint, characterized in that it permanently calculates, at any point of the flight plan, a speed setpoint V?(X) of the aircraft determined on the basis of reference speed profiles, comprising at least a minimum speed profile Vmin(X), and a maximum speed profile Vmax(X). The method can also take into account an optimum speed profile Vopt(X) determined, for example, on the basis of a cost or performance index.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2010
    Publication date: June 9, 2011
    Applicant: THALES
    Inventors: Benoît Dacre-Wright, Guy Deker, Xavier Blanchon
  • Patent number: 7925394
    Abstract: The method in accordance with the invention is a method of providing a 3D emergency descent trajectory for aircraft comprising the steps of searching for at least one possible better trajectory allowing a secure continuation in relation to the relief and/or the surrounding conditions towards a homing point as soon as a situation requiring an unscheduled modification of the current trajectory occurs, wherein this trajectory is updated as a function of the alterations in the surrounding conditions, as a function of the information provided by the onboard sensors and/or outside information received.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: Guy Deker, Nicolas Marty, François Coulmeau
  • Patent number: 7844373
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a method and a system for monitoring the following of a reference trajectory by an aircraft.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventor: Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 7835825
    Abstract: The subject of the present invention is a method for improving route and 4D prediction calculations by FMS in the framework of ATC tactical flight instructions, which method enables the FMS of an aircraft to carry out its usual predictions as precisely as possible when it has left or anticipates leaving its initial flight plan following an instruction from the air traffic controller, and has no instructions telling it where and when to return to the initial flight plan, and the invention is characterized in that it consists in transmitting to the aircraft, from an air traffic control centre, information enabling the FMS system to be aware of traffic crossing points (X1) and control sector changes, and to use this information to predict the coordinates of a point (X2) at which it is supposed to rejoin its initial flight plan at the earliest opportunity after the crossing point that required an alteration of trajectory and at the latest opportunity on the last point of the current sector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2010
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventors: François Coulmeau, Guy Deker
  • Publication number: 20100250117
    Abstract: The subject of the invention is a device for displaying flight plans of an aircraft comprising a control unit with at least one first display area comprising a textual list of identifiers of points, of pseudo-points and/or of segments that is representative of a portion of the flight plan, the display of the said list being centred around a central display point, the said point corresponding to a point, a pseudo-point or a segment of the flight plan, the said device being characterized in that it comprises means for displacing by jumps the flight plan portion displayed in the first display area by selecting a different central display point from the current central display point, the said selected point becoming the new central display point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Publication date: September 30, 2010
    Applicant: THALES
    Inventors: Guy Deker, Emmanuel Roux, Michel Roger
  • Publication number: 20100250026
    Abstract: The subject of the invention is an interactive navigation device comprising at least one navigation screen making it possible to display a graphical representation of at least one flight plan, a flight plan being composed of points and of segments. The device comprises means for displaying several flight plans simultaneously on the navigation screen at the same time as flight information text fields associated with the points of the said flight plans, the flight information fields being displayed in a manner contiguous with the points associated with them so as to be able to compare them conveniently. The device also comprises means for displaying on the navigation screen flight information fields associated with the segments of the flight plans, the said flight information fields being displayed in a manner contiguous with the segments associated with them.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Publication date: September 30, 2010
    Applicant: THALES
    Inventors: Guy Deker, Emmanuel Roux
  • Publication number: 20100217510
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for managing the flight of an aircraft flying along a trajectory and being subject to an absolute time constraint (on a downstream point) or relative time constraint (spacing with respect to a downstream aircraft), the said aircraft comprising a flight management system calculating a temporal discrepancy to the said time constraint, wherein the said method includes the following steps: the calculation of a distance on the basis of the temporal discrepancy, the modification of the trajectory: if the temporal discrepancy to the time constraint corresponds to an advance, the lengthening of the trajectory by the distance; if the temporal discrepancy to the time constraint corresponds to a delay, the shortening of the trajectory by the distance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 23, 2010
    Publication date: August 26, 2010
    Applicant: THALES
    Inventor: Guy Deker
  • Patent number: 7774131
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method of automatic navigation assistance for an aircraft. A capture zone being a zone in which the aircraft can capture a predetermined vertical profile segment by applying a transition between the guidance submode which the aircraft is in and the guidance submode adapted to the following of the vertical profile segment to be captured, it comprises the step consisting in determining the width of the capture zone as a function of the height h of the vertical profile to be captured and of the speed v which the aircraft has when plumb with this height when the aircraft is not on the profile or at this height when the aircraft is on the profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2010
    Assignee: Thales
    Inventor: Guy Deker