METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO GENERATE THE ATC CENTER NAMES LIST BASED ON AT LEAST ONE FLIGHT PLAN

• US 20150339932A1
• Filed: 05/20/2014
• Published: 11/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Original Assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
• Inventors: Judd, Thomas D., Ramanna, Prashanth
• Application Number:
  US14/282,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20150339932A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan

Abstract

A method to provide access to air traffic control centers to a crew member for context management (CM) logon is provided. The method includes accessing a flight plan for an aircraft at a processor; accessing a listing of air traffic control centers; generating a subset of the air traffic control centers at the processor; and displaying the subset of the air traffic control centers as at least a part of a prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers on a display for the crew member. The generating is based on at least one of: an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a flight path associated with the flight plan; and a pre-selected distance from the flight path.

Claims

1. A method to provide access to air traffic control centers to a crew member for context management (CM) logon, the method comprising:

accessing a flight plan for an aircraft at a processor;

accessing a listing of air traffic control centers;

generating a subset of the air traffic control centers at the processor, the generating being based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a flight path associated with the flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the flight path; and

displaying the subset of the air traffic control centers as at least a part of a prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers on a display for the crew member.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting the subset of the air traffic control centers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein sorting the subset of the air traffic control centers comprises:

rank ordering the subset of the air traffic control centers in the subset according to at least one of;

an extent of the ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping the flight path; and

distances from the aircraft to the respective air traffic control centers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the flight plan is a primary flight plan, wherein generating the subset of the air traffic control centers comprises:

generating a first-subset of the air traffic control centers based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a primary flight path associated with the primary flight plan; and

the pre-selected distance from the primary flight path, the method further comprising;

accessing an alternate flight plan for the aircraft; and

generating a second-subset of the air traffic control centers based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping an alternate flight path associated with the alternate flight plan; and

the pre-selected distance from the alternate flight path, in which air traffic control centers in the first-subset are excluded from the second-subset.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

appending the second-subset to the first-subset to form the prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

deleting a remainder of the air traffic control centers from the listing of the air traffic control centers to form the prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

appending the second-subset to the first-subset; and

appending to the second-subset a remainder of the listing of the air traffic control centers excluded from the first-subset and the second-subset to form the prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

sorting the first-subset of air traffic control centers; and

sorting the second-subset of the air traffic control centers.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein sorting the first-subset of the air traffic control centers comprises:

rank ordering the first-subset of air traffic control centers according to at least one of;

an extent of the ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping the primary flight path in the first-subset; and

distances from the aircraft to the air traffic control centers in the first-subset, wherein sorting the second-subset of the air traffic control centers comprises;

rank ordering the second-subset of air traffic control centers according to at least one of;

an extent of the ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping the alternate flight path in the second-subset; and

a distance from the aircraft to the air traffic control centers in the second-subset.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

appending to the subset a remainder of the listing of the air traffic control centers to form the prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing the flight plan for the aircraft comprises accessing the flight plan for the aircraft from a database stored in a system that hosts a Protected Mode Controller Data Link Communications (PM-CPDLC).

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deleting a remainder of the air traffic control centers from the listing of the air traffic control centers to form the prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers.

13. A computer system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory device in operative communication with the processor, the memory device comprising a computer readable medium having program instructions stored thereon for;

accessing a flight plan for an aircraft;

accessing a listing of air traffic control centers;

generating a subset of the air traffic control centers at the processor, the generating being based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a flight path associated with the flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the flight path; and

displaying the prioritized listing of the air traffic control centers on a display for a crew member.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the computer readable medium has further program instructions stored thereon for:

sorting the subset of the air traffic control centers.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the program instructions for sorting the subset of the air traffic control centers comprises program instructions for:

rank ordering the subset of the air traffic control centers in the subset according to at least one of;

an extent of the ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping the flight path; and

distances from the aircraft to the respective air traffic control centers.

16. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the flight plan is a primary flight plan, wherein the program instructions for generating the subset of the air traffic control centers comprises program instructions for:

generating a first-subset of the air traffic control centers based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a primary flight path associated with the primary flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the primary flight path, wherein the computer readable medium has further program instructions stored thereon for;

accessing an alternate flight plan for the aircraft; and

generating a second-subset of the air traffic control centers based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping an alternate flight path associated with the alternate flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the alternate flight path, in which air traffic control centers in the first-subset are excluded from the second-subset.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the computer readable medium has further program instructions stored thereon for:

appending the second-subset to the first-subset.

18. A computer program product comprising program instructions, embodied on a storage medium, that are operable to cause a processor to:

access a listing of air traffic control centers;

generate a subset of the air traffic control centers from the listing of the air traffic control centers, the generating being based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a flight path associated with a flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the flight path.

19. The program product of claim 18, further comprising instructions operable to cause the processor to:

rank order the subset of the air traffic control centers according to at least one of;

an extent of the ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping the flight path in the subset; and

distances from the aircraft to the air traffic control centers in the subset.

20. The program product of claim 18, wherein the program instructions operable to cause a processor to generate the subset of the air traffic control centers from the listing of the air traffic control centers includes program instructions operable to cause the processor to:

generate a first-subset of the air traffic control centers based on at least one of;

an ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping a primary flight path associated with a primary flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the primary flight path; and

generate a second-subset of the air traffic control centers based on at least one of;

the ATC-center authority coverage area overlapping an alternate flight path associated with an alternate flight plan; and

a pre-selected distance from the alternate flight path, in which air traffic control centers in the first-subset are excluded from the second-subset; and

append the second-subset to the first-subset.