Attitude and flight director display apparatus utilizing a cathode-ray tube having a polar raster

Claim 2

In attitude display apparatus for a movable craft, cathode-ray tube means having a face on which a beam impinges for providing a display of the attitude of said craft, polar raster generating means for generating signals for spirally moving said cathode ray tube beam with respect to said face, means for providing signals representative of the attitude of said craft, and means including summing means coupled to said cathode-ray tube means and responsive to said polar raster generated signals and to said attitude signals for providing a realistic display of the attitude of said craft on said face.

Claim 3

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 1 including horizon and roll generating means coupled to said polar raster generating means and to said summing means and responsive to roll attitude signals for providing a realistic display of the horizon and the roll attitude of said craft, said summing means being responsive to pitch attitude signals for providing a realistic display of the pitch attitude of said craft.

Claim 4

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 1 including runway perspective generating means coupled to said polar raster generating means and to said summing means and responsive to runway defining signals for providing a realistic display of the runway in perspective, said summing means being responsive to heading error signals for positioning said runway display accordingly.

Claim 5

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 1 including ground plane perspective generating means coupled to said polar raster generating means and said summing means and responsive to heading error signals for providing a realistic display of the ground plane in perspective.

Claim 6

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 1 including flight director and center reference generating means coupled to said summing means and responsive to horizontal and vertical center reference signals for providing discrete flight director and center reference signals, and means coupled to said cathode-ray tube means for rendering said flight director and center reference signals effective during the raster retrace time.

Claim 7

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 2 including runway perspective generating means coupled to said polar raster generating means, to said horizon and roll-generating means and to said summing means and adapted to be responsive to runway defining signals for providing a realistic display of the runway in perspective, runway perspective generating means coupled to said polar raster generating means and to said summing means and responsive to runway defining signals for providing a realistic display of the runway in perspective, said summing means being responsive to heading error signals for positioning said runway display accordingly, ground plane perspective generating means coupled to said polar raster generating means and said summing means and responsive to heading error signals for providing a realistic display of the ground plane in perspective, flight director and center reference generating means coupled to said summing means and responsive to horizontal and vertical center reference signals for providing discrete flight director and center reference signals, and means coupled to said cathode-ray tube means for rendering said flight director and center reference signals effective during the raster retrace time.

Claim 8

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 1 in which said polar raster generating means includes square wave generating means for providing a square wave voltage signal, ramp-generating means for providing a ramp voltage signal, voltage controlled symmetrical limiting means responsive to said square wave and ramp signals for providing a modulated square wave signal, means including phase shift network means responsive to said modulated square wave signal for providing amplitude modulated sin and cos voltages to said summing means for generating said spiral scan.

Claim 9

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 7 including raster interlace circuit means responsive to said ramp generating means for providing a ramp start position at one-half cycle of said square wave signal displaced every other sweep for providing an interlaced polar raster scan.

Claim 10

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 2 in which said horizon and roll-generating means includes means for providing an intensifying pulse to intensify said beam for 180* out of each cycle of the beam deflection voltage, and means responsive to said intensifying pulse and said roll signal for varying the phase of said intensifying pulse to render half the raster visible depending upon the phase of the intensifying pulse relative to said deflection voltage to present aircraft roll attitude.

Claim 11

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 9 in which said summing means responsive to said pitch attitude signals includes means for shifting said visible half of said raster up or down to present aircraft pitch attitude.

Claim 12

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 3 in which said runway perspective generating means includes means responsive to runway angular width signals for providing an angular width intensify pulse, means responsive to runway phase signals for providing a rotation signal, means responsive to heading error signals for providing a displacement signal, means responsive to runway start and finish signals for providing start and finish exhibit signals, said runway perspective generating means being responsive to said angular width intensify pulse, rotation signal, displacement signal and said start and finish inhibit signals to provide a realistic polygonal-shaped runway display.

Claim 13

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 3 including coordination means coupled to said summing means and responsive to said attitude signals for rotating said runway about the center of said display rather than the center of said spiral scan raster.

Claim 14

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 4 in which said ground plane perspective generating means includes means for generating a plurality of intensified grid lines converging at a predetermined point with respect to said display.

Claim 15

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 13 in which said ground plane perspective generating means includes means for generating a plurality of intensified parallel grid lines which intersect said converging grid lines to define said ground plane.

Claim 16

In apparatus of the character recited in claim 14 in which said ground plane perspective generating means includes means responsive to signals defining other portions of said display for exhibiting portions of said ground plane display which would otherwise overlap said other portions of said display.

Claim 17

A contact-analog attitude display apparatus for navigable craft comprising: a. a display media for a defined visible area for displaying position and attitude information, b. means coupled with said display media for generating a single point polar raster, the origin of said raster representing a single vanishing point relative to said craft, c. means connected with said generating means and responsive to the attitude of the craft relative to said point for modulating said polar raster to thereby render predetermined sectors of said polar raster visible whereby to inherently create a single point perspective display.

Claim 18

A contact-analog attitude display apparatus for navigable craft comprising: a. a display media for a defined visible area for displaying position and attitude information, b. means coupled with said display media for generating a single point polar raster, the origin of said raster representing a single vanishing point relative to said craft, c. means connected with said generating means and responsive to the attitude of the craft relative to said point for modulating said polar raster to thereby render predetermined sectors of said polar raster visible whereby to inherently create a single point perspective display.

Claim 19

The apparatus as set forth in claim 16 including further means responsive to the position and attitude of said craft for moving said polar raster origin relative to the visible area of said display media.

Claim 20

The apparatus as set forth in claim 16 further including means coupled with said modulating means and responsive to the roll attitude of the craft for generating two light and dark sectors of substantially 180* each representing sky and ground areas respectively, the demarcation line therebetween representing the earth''s horizon.

Claim 21

The apparatus as set forth in claim 18 further including means coupled with said modulating means for rendering narrow, ray-shaped sectors on said dark sector visible whereby to create ground plane perspective lines.

Claim 22

The apparatus as set forth in claim 18 further including means responsive to the pitch attitude of the craft for displacing said polar raster origin relative to said visible area in accordance with the pitch attitude of the aircraft.

Claim 23

The apparatus as set forth in claim 18 further including means responsive to the pitch and heading attitude of the craft for displacing said polar raster origin relative to said visible area in accordance with the pitch and heading attitude of the craft.

Claim 24

The apparatus as set forth in claim 16 wherein said display media is a cathode ray tube, having deflection means and beam-producing means, wherein said visible area comprises the viewing surface of said tube, wherein said polar raster generating means comprises means coupled with said deflection means foR spirally moving said beam with respect to the cathode-ray tube face and wherein said modulating means comprises means for intensity modulating said beam producing means.