Patent ID: 8244467

Claim:
A method for determining a reliable position of an aircraft, according to which method the following operations are carried out: a) producing, by a computer disposed in the aircraft, at least three first position values which each relate to a current position of the aircraft, each of the at least three first position values being produced on a basis of information arising respectively from onboard receivers which are associated with a satellite positioning system, and determining for each of the at least three first position values a probability space, each probability space being centered around a corresponding position value and defining a volume in which, with a probability greater than a predetermined threshold, an actual position of the aircraft is situated; b) implementing consistency tests to verify whether the at least three first position values are mutually consistent, the consistency tests making it possible to declare for each of the at least three first position values whether or not the respective first position value is valid in terms of reliability, said consistency tests comprising testing position values pairwise, each of the consistency tests comprising determining a threshold value which depends on radii of the probability spaces associated with the two tested position values and comparing a distance between the two tested position values with said threshold value and determining that a reliability problem exists if said distance is greater than the threshold value; c) calculating at least two second position values which each relate to the current position of the aircraft and which correspond to hybrid position values with an aid of said at least three first position values and with an aid of inertial information; d) implementing additional consistency tests to verify whether said at least two second position values are mutually consistent, the additional consistency tests making it possible to declare for each of said at least two second position values whether or not the respective second position value is valid in terms of reliability; and e) determining, on the basis of at least certain of said at least three first and the at least two second position values which have been declared valid based on the consistency tests and the additional consistency tests implemented in said operations b) and d), a reliable current position of the aircraft with the aid of a consolidation scheme.