Patent ID: 7379796

Claim:
A low-altitude flight guidance system for an aircraft comprising: a warning generator that generates a warning based upon a predicted position; a first sensor system having a terrain database and a calculation module that determines a current position of the aircraft with respect to terrain stored in the terrain database and that determines a reference altitude h DB of the terrain at the current position; a second sensor system and a module that determines a predetermined flight altitude difference Δh F at the predicted position and terrain data in a region U of the predicted position; and an altitude prediction module that predicts an altitude and forwards the predicted altitude to the warning generator, wherein the warning is based upon the aircraft reaching, approaching, or exceeding a warning altitude limit, and the altitude prediction module determination for the predicted position is based upon a prediction set point, and wherein the altitude prediction module determines a distance altitude h* from an altitude of an aircraft above ground h G supplied by the first sensor system, a flight altitude difference Δh F predetermined for the predicted position, a safety altitude Δh WCTP , and a difference altitude Δh P2 calculated from the terrain data with respect to the current position and the predicted position, and wherein the safety altitude Δh WCTP is determined from a difference of an altitude of the highest point and the altitude of the predicted position in a region of the predicted position, and the difference altitude Δh P2 and the safety altitude Δh WCTP are subtracted from the predicted flight altitude h F in order to obtain the distance altitude h*.