Apparatus for ground computed radial navigation

Claim 1

A GROUND CONTROLLED SYSTEM FOR SIMULTNEOUSLY GENERATING AIRCRAFT POSITION ERROR SIGNALS AND FOR CONTROLLING A PLURALITY OF AIRCRAFT, SAID SYSTEM COMPRISING: A COMPUTER FOR GENERATING A PLURALITY OF SIMULATED FLIGHT SIGNALS EACH REPRESENTING A RESPECTIVE SCHEDULED FLIGHT FOR AN AIRCRAFT IN FAST SIMULATED TIME; A FIRST ERROR SIGNAL GENERATOR FOR RECEIVING THE SIMULATED FLIGHT SIGNALS FROM SAID COMPUTER AND FOR RECEIVING RADAR TRACKING SIGNALS TO PRODUCE FIRST ERROR SIGNALS REPRESENTING THE POSITION DIFFERENCES IN X AND Y COORDINATES BETWEEN THE SIMULATED FLIGHT POSITION AND THE PRESENT ACTUAL AIRCRAFT POSITION; AN ALONG-ROUTE ERROR SIGNAL GENERATOR RESPONSIVE TO SAID FIRST ERROR SIGNALS FOR PRODUCING A SECOND SIGNAL REPRESENTING DISTANCE ALONG THE SCHEDULE ROUTE BETWEEN THE PROJECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT TO THE ROUTE AND THE SIMULATED POSITION OF THE AIRCRAFT; MEANS FOR PRODUCING A THIRD SIGNAL INDICATING THAT SAID SECOND SIGNAL IS ZERO; AN OFFSET ERROR SIGNAL GENERATOR RESPONSIVE TO SAID FIRST ERROR SIGNAL AND TO SAID THIRD SIGNAL FOR PRODUCING AN OFFSET SIGNAL REPRESENTING THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE ACTUAL AIRCRAFT POSITION AND THE SIMULATED AIRCRAFT POSITION WHEN THE SIMULATED POSITION IS AT THE FOOT OF A PERPENDICULAR DRAWN FROM THE ACTUAL AIRCRAFT POSITION TO THE SCHEDULED AIRCRAFT ROUTE; AND MEANS RESPONSIVE TO SAID THIRD SIGNAL FOR DERIVING A SCHEDULE ERROR SIGNAL INDICATING THE LEAD OR LAG TIME OF THE AIRCRAFT ACCORDING TO ITS TIME SCHEDULE.