Control method for flight of contour hugging aircraft - using radar scanning and having data store for comparison of profile of land sections

摘要

Enemy transmitters are able to 'blind' the receivers of low flying aircraft and force them to increase altitude immediately thus rendering them open to detection. To overcome this, the aircraft radar system which is used to scan the land contours and control the on-board computer can be adapted so that the land profiles are retained in a data store that compares the last immediate measured land profile with the directly preceding one. If the results of the computed comparison show that the contour sections agree with one another, no action is necessary as it can be concluded that the analysis is correct. However, if clear deviations appear in the last measured contour compared with that previously stored, faulty functioning of the radar or external counter measures may be the cause. In this event, the last measured contour is rejected for controlling the aircraft, and the previously stored one taken to represent the real contour. Thus the contours of the land are continuously compared in the data store throughout the flight.