Patent ID: 7075457

Claim:
A method of monitoring energy components of an aircraft in flight, the method comprising: providing an estimate or measurement of a value (referred to as an â€œestimated valueâ€) of an energy component, E(t n )=d1Â·KE(t n )+d2Â·PE(t n ), of a combination of a kinetic energy component KE(t n ) and a potential energy component PE(t n ) of an aircraft during an ascent phase of a flight, at each of a first sequence of times (n=1, . . . , N; Nâ‰§2), where d1 and d2 are selected real numbers, at least one being non-zero; providing a reference value E(tâ€² n ;ref) of the energy E(t n ) at a time, t=tâ€² n , determined with reference to the time t n (n=1, . . . , N); providing an index of comparison C1{E(t n ), E(tâ€² n ;ref)} of the estimated and reference energy components for at least one time numbered n; and when a value of the comparison index C1 lies outside a selected range, interpreting this condition as indicating that the estimated energy component is anomalous.