ONBOARD FLIGHT PLANNING SYSTEM

• US 20130046422A1
• Filed: 04/12/2011
• Published: 02/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Flight Focus Pte Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Flight Focus Pte Ltd.
• Inventors: Cabos, Ralf
• Application Number:
  US13/640,707
• Publication Number:
  US 20130046422A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/3
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/20 Instruments for performing navigational calculations G01C21/24, G01C21/26 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/006 in accordance with predefined flight zones, e.g. to avoid prohibited zones

Abstract

According to the application, a method for generating a flight route of an aircraft by an aircraft based computer system is disclosed. The method comprises the execution the following steps, which are executed by the aircraft based computer system. A mission specific data subset is received from a ground system. It is checked whether there are predefined routes from a departure airport to a destination airport. If it is determined that predefined route are available which are in accordance with over-flight permissions the predefined routes are used as a set of candidate routes for deriving a flight route. Otherwise, a set of proposed flight routes is generated which comprises at least one proposed flight route. Over-flight permissions are checked for the set of proposed flight routes. The steps of generating a set of proposed flight routes and of checking the over-flight permissions are repeated until at least one proposed flight route is found to be in accordance with the over-flight permissions. The one or more flight routes or routes which are in accordance with the over-flight permissions are used as a set of candidate routes for deriving a flight route. A flight route is derived from the set of candidate routes.

Claims

1. Device for generating a flight route of an aircraft by an aircraft based computer system, comprising

means for receiving a mission specific data subset from a ground based system,

means for checking for predefined routes from a departure airport to a destination airport,

means for selecting the predefined routes as a set of candidate routes if predefined routes are available,

means for generating a set of proposed flight routes, the set comprising at least one proposed flight route if no predefined route is available,

means for checking over-flight permissions for the set of proposed flight routes;

means for repeating the steps of generating a set of proposed flight routes and of checking the over-flight permissions until at least one proposed flight route is found to be in accordance with the over-flight permissions;

means for selecting the at least one proposed flight route as a set of candidate routes;

means for deriving a flight route from the set of candidate routes.

2. Device according to claim 1, the device further comprising

means for calculating a fuel consumption for the candidate routes;

means for calculating a cost for the candidate routes based on the fuel consumption.

3. Device according to claim 1, further comprising

means for checking the candidate routes against weather data,

means for calculating a preferred route of flight based on the weather data.

4. Device according to claim 1, further comprising

means for loading the flight route into a flight management computer system of the aircraft for the generation of autopilot commands using an onboard databus system.

5. Device according to claim 1, further comprising

means for generating flight crew briefing package which contains a listing of NOTAM and weather, and other information relevant to the flight.

6. Aircraft based flight planning system comprising a device according to claim 1.

7. Aircraft with an aircraft based flight planning system according to claim 6.

8. Aircraft based flight planning system for generating a flight route of an aircraft by an aircraft based computer system, the aircraft based flight planning system comprising:

a receiving means for receiving a mission specific data subset from a ground system,

a computer readable memory for storing a set of predetermined routes and a set of predetermined overflight permissions,

a control means for determining if predetermined routes from a departure airport to a destination airport are available, the predetermined routes being stored in a computer readable memory, for outputting the predetermined routes as a set of candidate routes,

a flight route generating and calculation module for generating, if predefined routes are not available, a set of proposed flight routes, the set comprising at least one proposed flight route,

wherein the control means verifies for the set of proposed flight routes, for which of the proposed flight routes the over-flight permissions are fulfilled, and wherein the control means repeats the steps of generating a set of proposed flight routes and of verifying the over-flight permissions until at least one proposed flight route is found to be in accordance with the over-flight permissions, and wherein the control means outputs the proposed routes which are in accordance with the over-flight permission as a set of candidate routes, and wherein the control means derives a flight route from a set of candidate routes.

9. Method for generating a flight route of an aircraft by an aircraft based computer system, comprising the execution of the following steps by the aircraft based computer system:

receiving a mission specific data subset from a ground based system;

checking for predefined routes from a departure airport to a destination airport;

if it is determined that predefined routes are available;

using the predefined routes as a set of candidate routes;

if no predefined route is available;

generating a set of proposed flight routes, the set comprising at least one proposed flight route;

checking over-flight permissions for the set of proposed flight routes;

repeating the steps of generating a set of proposed flight routes and of checking the over-flight permissions until at least one proposed flight route is found to be in accordance with the over-flight permissions;

using the at least one proposed flight route as a set of candidate routes;

deriving a flight route from the set of candidate routes.

10. Method, according to claim 9, the method further comprising the steps of

determining the acceptability of the set of candidate routes according to a predetermined set of conditions;

if it is determined that none of the candidate routes is acceptable;

repeating the following steps until at least one acceptable candidate route is found;

generating a new set of candidate routes;

repeating the steps of checking the over-flight permissions and of generating a set of proposed flight routes until at least one proposed flight route is found to be in accordance with the overflight permissions;

using the at least one proposed flight route as a set of candidate routes;

determining the acceptability of the set of candidate routes;

if it is determined that at least one candidate route is acceptable;

optimizing the acceptable candidate route vertically;

selecting a flight route from the acceptable candidate routes, based on output data of the optimizing step;

storing the flight route in a computer readable memory of the aircraft based system for later output.

11. Method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of

loading the flight route into a flight management computer system of the aircraft for the generation of autopilot commands using an ARINC Bus system.

12. Method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of

displaying the flight route in an onboard pilot display unit, the pilot display unit including a moving map display.

13. Method according to claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

calculating a fuel consumption for the candidate routes;

calculating a cost for the candidate routes based on the fuel consumption.

14. Method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of

generating flight crew briefing package which contains a listing of NOTAM and weather, and other information relevant to the flight.

15. Method according to claim 9, further comprising a step of

generating a mission specific output for use in automated flight following for the flight, the automated flight following comprising the steps of:

receiving the mission specific output data from the aircraft-based system by a ground based system;

storing the mission specific output data in a computerized flight following system;

analysing data being received by the ground-based system;

comparing and determining if the data being received by the ground-based system is different to the mission specific data output from the aircraft-based system;

automatically updating the data on board the aircraft if a change is required;

re-synchronising master document lists held on both the aircraft-based and ground-based systems.

16. Method according to claim 9, further comprising steps of

deriving formatted output data from an output of the flight planning application;

transmitting the formatted output to one ore more external agencies, the external agencies being selected from an air traffic control service, an airline, a service provider.

17. Method according to claim 9, wherein the set of predetermined conditions are updated based on the mission specific data subset, the updating comprising:

extracting data from the mission specific subset;

parsing the data from the mission specific subset;

deriving one ore more of the predetermined conditions from the parsed data.

18. Method according to claim 9 wherein the step of receiving the mission specific data set comprises

receiving the mission specific dataset via a Bluetooth connection.

19. Method according to claim 9 wherein the selection of the flight route comprises

calculating, for one or more of the candidate routes, the costings of the candidate route wherein the calculation comprises

retrieving or calculating charges,

retrieving or calculating performance data of the engines of the aircraft.

20. Method according to claim 10, wherein the determining of the acceptability of candidate routes comprises

checking the candidate routes against weather data,

calculating a preferred route of flight based on weather information.