Aircraft Carbon Savings Display System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aviation faces challenges in providing immediate feedback on carbon footprint impacts to flight crews, limiting their ability to make sustainable operational decisions during flights, as current systems like Flight Management Systems do not display how alternate flight plans affect sustainability or carbon footprint.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for displaying carbon savings, which includes input devices such as flight management, fuel, air data, and engine control systems, and user interface devices, using processors to calculate and display carbon savings values to users, allowing flight crews to make informed decisions about fuel choices, weather diversions, and descent profiles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If current flight management systems are used, then flight operations can be managed, but carbon footprint impacts cannot be displayed to flight crews in real-time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the carbon savings calculation functionality with the existing flight management system architecture. The controller integrates data from multiple systems (flight management, fuel, air data, engine control) and displays carbon savings information through existing display devices, thereby providing real-time carbon footprint information without requiring entirely separate hardware infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The display devices existing in the flight management system are made multi-functional by enabling them to display both traditional flight information and carbon savings information. This allows the system to provide comprehensive information display capabilities without adding dedicated display hardware solely for carbon footprint visualization.
2Productivity
If real-time carbon savings calculation is implemented, then flight crews can make informed sustainability decisions, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores carbon savings values based on flight plan data, fuel consumption rates, and other parameters before the flight occurs. During the flight, the controller retrieves and displays pre-calculated carbon savings information rather than performing complex real-time calculations, thereby reducing computational energy consumption while maintaining the ability to provide informed sustainability decisions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically calculates and displays carbon savings information without requiring manual intervention or complex real-time computational processing from the flight crew. The controller autonomously processes data from various systems and presents carbon savings information, reducing the computational burden on the flight management system while enabling informed decision-making.
3Measurement precision
If multiple data sources are integrated for carbon savings calculation, then calculation accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data collection and processing functions by assigning specific systems to provide specific data types: flight management system provides flight plan data, fuel system provides fuel consumption rates, air data system provides atmospheric conditions, and engine control system provides engine performance data. The controller then integrates these segmented data sources to calculate carbon savings, thereby achieving accurate calculations while maintaining modular system architecture that manages complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for displaying carbon savings to a user is disclosed. The system may include one or more carbon savings input devices. The one or more carbon savings input devices may include at least one of a flight management system, a fuel system, an air data system, and an engine control system. The system may include one or more user interface devices including one or more displays. The system may include one or more controllers including one or more processors configured to execute a set of program instructions configured to cause the one or more processors to: receive one or more carbon savings inputs from the carbon savings input devices; calculate a carbon savings value based on the received carbon savings inputs; and generate one or more control signals configured to cause the display of the user interface device to display the calculated carbon savings value to the user.