Patent ID: 8321074

Claim:
A system for generating aircraft altitude data, such system comprising: a plurality of sources of navigation data; a source of object data; and a processor configured to receive first navigation data representative of a first measurement of aircraft altitude, receive second navigation data representative of a first measurement of vertical distance, receive third navigation data representative of a second measurement of aircraft altitude, receive fourth navigation data representative of a second measurement of vertical distance, receive object data representative of a value of terrain or surface feature elevation, determine an instant measurement of aircraft altitude as a function of the first measurement of aircraft altitude, the first measurement of vertical distance, the second measurement of aircraft altitude, the second measurement of vertical distance, and the measurement of terrain or surface feature elevation, where the function performs a first operation followed by continuous second operations, such that the first operation initializes the initial instant measurement of aircraft altitude as a combination of initial first navigation data, and initial third navigation data, and the second operation continuously updates the instant measurement of aircraft altitude as a combination of instant second navigation data, instant third navigation data, instant fourth navigation data, and instant object data, and generate aircraft altitude data responsive to the determination of the instant measurement of aircraft altitude, where the aircraft altitude data is representative of aircraft altitude information.