Research and Analysis of Civil Aircraft Radio Altimeter Malfunction

Abstract

The radio altimeter is an important navigation instrument on an aircraft, capable of accurately measuring the aircraft's true height above the ground or sea to ensure safe flight. This capability is crucial for ensuring normal flight operations, especially during critical phases such as takeoff, approach, and landing. Polar terrain is complex and continually changing. The vast, endless ice fields, crisscrossing glacier crevasses, towering icebergs, and weather conditions all add significant uncertainty to air travel. In such environments, the aircraft's navigation system is particularly important as a core device to ensure flight safety. This article provides a brief overview of the aircraft radio altimeter system. Using data and observations from production flight tests, it studies the specific challenges posed by radio altimeter failures encountered during these critical validation flights. The study synthesizes these findings and proposes a relatively general troubleshooting approach to address such issues. Furthermore, the effectiveness of this method has been rigorously validated through its application in solving a complex real-world radar altimeter failure case.