Methods for in-flight adjusting of a flight plan

Abstract

A method (100) of in-flight adjusting a flight plan of an aircraft to provide a low cost flight based on predicting a trajectory (102) for the completion of the flight based on at least the current state data of the aircraft along the flight plan, performance data for the aircraft, and the flight plan data, and computing the cost of completing the flight plan (104).

Description

Background technique [0001] A modern aircraft includes a flight management system (FMS) that implements the flight plan. The flight management system can take into account various factors and data. Data can be uploaded to the FMS from the ground station through the communication system or entered by the pilot while the aircraft is in flight. The FMS can generate flight conditions by taking into account parameters specific to the aircraft and flight conditions such as payload, aircraft weight, amount of onboard fuel, temperature, wind, altitude, etc., as well as time constraints imposed by air traffic control plan. A flight plan may describe all waypoints or locations that the aircraft will pass through with the altitude at each waypoint and the corresponding speed. More recently, FMSs have also been configured to consider economic criteria; however, these systems only consider the relative weight of fuel costs to time-related costs (such as labor or personnel costs) when deve...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

more recently, FMSs have also been configured to consider economic criteria; however, these systems only consider the relative weight of fuel costs to time-related costs (such as labor or personnel costs) when developing flight plans

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