The Aircraft Flight Instruments Computer Science Essay

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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Flight instruments are found in the cockpit of an aeroplane and provide information to the pilot about the flight situation of the aircraft. Information provided by the flight instruments are; altitude, speed and direction among others. Flight instruments consist of airspeed indicator, magnetic compass, heading indicator, vertical speed indicator, radio magnetic indicator, altimeter and altitude indicator. These instruments come in handy in cases of poor visibility which mostly result from bad weather and obstacles in the sky such as thick clouds.

A primary flight display is a modern aircraft instrument that presents information about the primary flight instruments and the status of the flight in one integrated display. It is classified as part of the electronic instruments of an air plane. Some modified aircrafts may have the display include the power plant information and other systems information. The primary flight displays are built around a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device. Flight instrument presentations differ from the conventional instrumentation in format and location depending on the plane. However, the modern primary flight display does not change the way in which pilots scan their instruments during altitude flying instead it supports the same control and performance method used with conventional flight instruments.

The modern primary flight display offers a variety of enhancements to the primary flight instruments. Some of the enhancements are; the primary flight display offers an airspeed indicator that has reference speeds and operating ranges for the aircraft. Which are useful when the vertical airspeed instrument records a high speed, such a condition is corrected by lowering the aeroplane’s nose. Another enhancement is; it has trend indicators which process data to predict and display future performance of the machine. This helps the pilot predict the distance the aircraft can fly in any condition.

The primary flight display has several advantages the major one being combining several navigation instruments and making them a single presentation thereby making the pilots work easier. Another advantage is that the primary flight display also displays the flight instruments in a variety of views and can be coupled to many of the navigation receivers. Lastly, the primary flight display centralises the instruments, making locating the flight’s instruments easier for the pilot and makes the cockpit organised.

Despite all the efforts made by aeronautical engineers to make the primary flight display perfect, the system can experience failures. In a case of primary flight display failure, the pilot should be familiar with each instrument and should point out the failure easily. The primary flight display recognizes and indicates the failure usually with a bold red X sign over or in place of the instrument. The pilot should interpret and know how the information will impact the flight. The airspeed, altitude, and vertical speed indicators on the primary flight display indicate failure of the air data computer.

In extreme cases the primary flight display can fail. Some systems have been designed with the reversion capability to display the data on the multi-function display. It is a requirement for every aircraft to contain a set of backup instruments as a precautionary measure in terms of system failure. Another measure is the pilots should maintain proficiency with these instruments, which includes correctly interpreting flight and navigation instrument displayed on the primary flight display, recognise failures of the primary flight display and how to correct them, accurately determine system and actions that are necessary for functions, data entry and retrieval. The disadvantage of the primary flight display is that the system is not fully automated; the pilot has to keep on checking for failures.

In the past various methods were used for navigation by the pilot. The three main methods that were used before the invention of the navigation display were piloting, dead reckoning and radio navigation. Piloting or pilotage was where the pilot keeps on course while following a landmark such as a river, ocean or rail road among others. Dead reckoning was where it is based on time, distance and direction. It is mostly used by skilled pilots when flying over large water bodies, deserts and forests. Radio navigation where the pilot finds out from an aeronautical chart what radio station they should listen to in a particular area so they can tune their aeronautical equipment to signal from that station.

The navigation display was then founded. It is found in the cockpit of an aeroplane and it is designed to show navigation type information such as routes, air traffic, waypoints and airports in a customised way hence used to stimulate navigation modes of the modern cockpits. The major role of the navigation display is to display navigational and weather information from multiple systems. The instrument resembles a navigation map and also predicts many different world displays. The entities in an area are displayed in a two dimensional manner.

The navigation display unit has configuration properties, some of which can be changed dynamically to display state changes. Consequently, the logical origin can be moved to stimulate centred modes. The range can also be set. The navigation displays also contain symbols each must define its rectangle in logical pixels. This allows specific rules to be written and the states that must be present or absent for the rule to apply. These symbols are built in but some of them can be defined by an individual to allow custom items on the display.

A flight management system is an important aspect of the aeroplane. It is responsible for the running of the navigation display. It is a specialised computer system that automates a variety of in flight task, thus reducing the workload of the cabin crew. The in-flight management of the plan uses sensors but can sometimes be backed up by radio navigation to determine the aircrafts position. It then guides the aircraft along the aircraft plan/ the flight management system is controlled through a control display unit which has a small screen and a keyboard or may be a touch screen. The flight management system sends a flight plan to the navigation display. All flight management systems contain a database which is updated after every twenty eight days. The pilot uses the flight management system to minimize the workload and eliminate any confusing information. In case of a navigation display failure the commonly used backup method is the radio navigation technique.

Another instrument in the electronic flight systems is the multi functional display which has the same uses as the navigation display, it displays weather and more navigation instruments from multiple system. In addition, it also functions as a backup instrument in case of failure of the primary flight display and provides additional information which is used within the flight deck. They are frequently designed as a place where the flight crew can overlay different information over a map or chart.

The multi functional display also displays additional information such as the fuel and other electrical systems. It changes colour or shape of the data to alert the crew of any hazardous situation for necessary precautions to be taken. The most common display sign to show hazardous situation is a X or a red box which is accompanied with an alert sound.

In addition, we have the advanced technology systems in the aircraft. The automatic dependent surveillance broadcast continues to undergo development, the concept is simple, and aeroplanes broadcast messages on regular basis. Such messages includes their position that is altitude, latitude and longitude, velocity and other information so that other aeroplanes and systems can receive this information for use in a wide variety of applications. The automatic dependent surveillance broadcast provides a three dimensional position of the aircraft. It also listens for position of the reports broadcast by the aeroplane which are based on satellite navigation systems. The accuracy of the system is determined by accuracy of the navigation system, not system errors. Furthermore, accuracy is unaffected by the range to the aircraft as in the case of a radar. With radar, detecting speed changes require tracking the data and changes can only be detected over a period of several position updates. With the automatic dependence system broadcast, speed changes are broadcast immediately and received by properly equipped aircraft.

In conclusion, aeronautical engineers together with Information Technology experts have come up with ways to automate the pilot. The difference is clearly spotted in modern day aircrafts as compared to the early models of aeroplanes which required manual labour, for example hard copy maps were used for navigation. As stated earlier, the primary flight display and navigation were designed to automate the airplane in order to make the cabin crew’s work easier. Though the aeroplanes are not fully automated, they are very useful. Even as Information Technology advances, it is also expected that the systems of the aeroplane will also advance in technology. It is expected that soon aircrafts will have automated systems that will be able to correct failures and run the whole aircraft thereby making the pilot’s work easier.