Patent ID: 8521365

Claim:
A method for a lateral control of a taxiing aircraft, said aircraft being provided with an orientable front wheel, the method comprising: a) generating, by order generating means ( 2 ), command orders relating to controlling the orientation of said front wheel; b) measuring a current ground speed of the aircraft; c) automatically determining from said command orders and said current ground speed, first orders for at least one of the following command assemblies of the aircraft: a set of brakes (E 1 ) and a set of engines (E 2 ), each one of said command assemblies (E 1 , E 2 ) being able to generate a lateral movement of the aircraft around a vertical axis by means of an asymmetrical action; d) subsequently automatically applying the first orders to said command assemblies (E 1 , E 2 ); e) automatically monitoring an orientation system ( 19 ) for orienting said front wheel so as to be able to detect a breakdown of such an orientation system ( 19 ); as long as no breakdown has been detected, automatically generating said command orders by means of said order generating means ( 2 ) to said orientation system ( 19 ) of the front wheel and not implementing said steps a) to d); and as soon as a breakdown is detected, automatically implementing said steps a) to d) so as to generate on the aircraft a lateral movement being substantially identical to the lateral movement that would have been generated by the application of said command orders to said front wheel, and not applying said command orders to said system of orientation ( 19 ) of the front wheel.