An Air Conflict Prediction Method Applied to General Aviation

With the rapid development of general aviation, flight safety guarantee is the prerequisite to enrich the type of operation and accelerate the growth of workload. In order to solve out the problem about the lack of ability of autonomous air conflict alert in general aviation aircraft, an air conflict prediction method used in avionics equipment based on ADS-B IN is proposed. It is better to meet flexible maneuver feature and low-cost requirement of general aviation. First, the ADS-B IN is used to maximum information of traffics around ownship and complete the rough selection of potential conflict aircrafts. Second, a self-adaptive constant rate turn model is used to achieve real time of trajectory tracking and high accuracy of trajectory prediction in the flexible maneuver situation. Finally, the improved model of autonomous air conflict prediction used in avionics equipment is used to complete the conflict prediction, and a multi-decision method of conflict prediction results is designed to ensure the correctness of the alert. Based on performance assessment method presented in this paper, the function test and performance evaluation of autonomous air conflict prediction method using simulation encounters are completed. The experimental results indicated the method can not only provide the correct air conflict prediction for pilots of general aviation, but also provide the enough time for flight crew response which meet the RTCA requirement for air conflict alert. The development of avionics equipment based on the proposed method has been completed, and the flight verification of general aviation aircrafts equipped with this equipment has been completed at a general aviation airport. The flight results indicate pilots can get the alert from avionics 92 seconds before the conflict occurs. With the help of the information of the ownship and intruder displayed on cockpit display screen, the correct maneuver for avoiding collision can be completed ahead of time. It is great significant to the nationalization of avionics equipment.