Avionics Flight Plan Update Automation

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Current flight plan updates require manual intervention by flight crews or pilots, which is inefficient and time-consuming, especially in dynamic environments like changing weather or traffic conditions.

Innovation Solution

An avionics device receives updates from external sources, authenticates and validates them, generates updated flight parameters, compares these with current parameters, and performs plausibility checks to automatically update the flight plan if conditions are plausible, or generates an implausible indication if not.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If manual updates by flight crew are used, then flight plan accuracy can be maintained, but pilot workload increases and update efficiency decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveflight plan update efficiencyVSAvoidpilot workload

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The flight management system automatically receives, validates, and processes flight plan updates from external sources without requiring manual pilot intervention. The system self-updates the flight plan by comparing environmental conditions and generating plausibility checks, thereby improving update efficiency while reducing pilot workload.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical process of pilot intervention with an automated electronic system. The avionics device automatically receives updates, performs validation, compares environmental conditions, executes plausibility checks, and updates the flight plan electronically, substituting human manual operations with automated computational processes.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Reliability

If frequent updates are implemented, then flight plan currentness improves, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveflight plan currentnessVSAvoidupdate processing complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary validation and environmental condition comparisons before executing flight plan updates. By pre-checking the plausibility of updates against current environmental conditions and performing authenticity validations in advance, the system manages complexity systematically while ensuring reliable, current flight plan data.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously monitors environmental conditions and compares them with the flight plan parameters, creating a feedback loop that automatically triggers updates when conditions change. This feedback mechanism ensures flight plan currentness while managing complexity through automated conditional processing rather than constant manual intervention.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS11887487B2Method and system for the updating of a flight plan

Publication Date: 2024.01.30 GE AVIATION SYST LTD

AI summary

A method for updating a flight plan comprising, via an avionics device, at least a portion of a flight plan from an external source, authenticating or validating the update, generating a set of updated flight parameters, comparing the set of updated flight parameters with a current set of flight parameters, receiving a set of environmental conditions, performing a series of plausibility checks and automatically updating at least a portion of the flight plan or generating an indication.