System for piloting an aircraft, at least for piloting the aircraft during an autonomous approach for the purpose of landing

1. A system for piloting an aircraft during an autonomous approach for the purpose of landing, said piloting system comprising:

information sources comprised of:

a flight management computer that extracts information from a database connected to the flight management computer and determines from the extracted information a virtual approach axis for the aircraft, and

a positioning system configured for determining an actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft from onboard devices and for determining precision and integrity levels of the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft;

a processor comprising a flight guidance computer,

wherein said flight guidance computer comprises:

i) a first calculator that receives information characterizing the virtual approach axis determined by the flight management computer and the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft determined by the positioning system, and directly calculates, from the received information characterizing the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, perpendicular linear distances between the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, wherein the perpendicular linear distances represent a first distance calculated in a horizontal plane and a second distance calculated in a vertical plane,

ii) a second calculator that further receives the information characterizing the virtual approach axis determined by the flight management computer and the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft determined by the positioning system, and calculates, from the received information characterizing the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, lateral and vertical angular deviations between the actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft and the virtual approach axis, and

iii) a third calculator that calculates aircraft piloting setpoints from the perpendicular linear distances calculated by said first calculator;

a piloting aid configured to receive the aircraft piloting setpoints and assist in guiding the aircraft to land according to the aircraft piloting setpoints;

a display and control system that displays the lateral and vertical angular deviations calculated by the second calculator; and

a warning and surveillance system that carries out surveillance from the lateral and vertical angular deviations.

2. The piloting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the piloting aid is an autopilot.

3. An aircraft, comprising the piloting system of claim 1 .

4. The piloting system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the positioning system is further configured to dispatch a message to the flight management computer to display the autonomous approach unavailable, in the event that precision and integrity level of the current, actual three-dimensional position of the aircraft are determined by the positioning system to be below a required performance level.