Aircraft terrain avoidance apparatus

Claim 1

AIRCRAFT CONTROL APPARATUS COMPRISING A RADAR EQUIPMENT FOR SCANNING AN ONCOMING OBSTACLE AND FOR PROVIDING A PLURALITY OF OUTPUT SIGNALS EACH REPRESENTING THE RANGE TO SAID OBSTACLE AS MEASURED ALONG A RESPECTIVE ANGLE WITHIN SAID PREDETERMINED ANGLE, MEANS FOR GENERATING A PLURALITY OF REFERENCE SIGNALS EACH REPRESENTING A PREDETERMINED RANGE AS MEASURED ALONG A DISCRETE DIRECTION WITHIN SAID PREDETERMINED ANGLE, MEANS FOR COMPARING EACH SAID OUTPUT SIGNAL WITH A RESPECTIVE ONE OF SAID REFERENCE SIGNALS TO PRODUCE A FIRST CONTROL SIGNAL WHEN ONE OF SAID REFERENCE SIGNALS EXCEEDS THE ONE OF SAID OUTPUT SIGNALS TO WHICH IT IS COMPARED, MEANS FOR PRODUCING A SECOND CONTROL SIGNAL REPRESENTING THE DEVIATION IN HEIGHT OF SAID AIRCRAFT FROM A PREDETERMINED HEIGHT, PITCH CONTROL APPARATUS FOR CAUSING SAID AIRCRAFT TO PITCH UPWARDLY TO AVOID SAID OBSTACLE IN RESPONSE TO INPUT SIGNALS, SIGNAL INTEGRATING MEANS, MEANS FOR APPLYING SAID FIRST AND SECOND CONTROL SIGNALS TO SAID SIGNAL INTEGRATING MEANS, AND MEANS FOR COUPLING THE OUTPUT OF SAID INTEGRATING MEANS TO SAID PITCH CONTROL APPARATUS.