Patent ID: 7646313

Claim:
A method for assisting in the piloting of an aircraft, whereby there is displayed, on at least one display screen of said aircraft, a set of information that illustrates a vertical plane, said set of information comprising a system of axes, of which a Y axis is graduated altitude-wise, and an X axis is graduated distance-wise from the position of the aircraft; a characteristic symbol representing the aircraft, which is positioned on said Y axis, in a position representative of the altitude of said aircraft, and where appropriate, an auxiliary characteristic symbol that represents an aircraft in the vicinity, method whereby distance and altitude information concerning an aircraft in the vicinity can be generated, said method comprising, during a flight of the aircraft: a) performing automatic surveillance of the surroundings of said aircraft, so as to be able to detect all aircraft in the vicinity that are located in a particular detection space situated at least in front of said aircraft, and determining a flight path angle for at least one aircraft in the vicinity detected in this step a); and b) for each of the aircraft in the vicinity detected in the step a), performing the following successive series of operations: b1) generating distance and altitude information concerning the aircraft in the vicinity; b2) determining using said distance and altitude information a distance value and an altitude value; and b3) presenting on said display screen: an auxiliary characteristic symbol that represents said aircraft in the vicinity and that is positioned on said system of axes in a position corresponding: on said Y axis, to said altitude value; and on said X axis, to said distance value; and in association with the auxiliary characteristic symbol representing at least one of said aircraft in the vicinity, a straight line segment illustrating the flight path angle of this aircraft in the vicinity.