Flight management system of an aircraft

• US 9,709,982 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2014
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Original Assignee: Airbus Operations (European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company EADS NV)
• Inventors: Mere, Jean-Claude, Neri, Pierre, Bernat, Julien, Vie, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas G
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMITH-STEWART, DEMETRA R
• Application Number:
  US14/553,191
• Publication Number:
  US 20150148998A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 23/00 Combined instruments indicating more than one navigational value, e.g. for aircraft; Combined measuring devices for measuring two or more variables of movement, e.g. distance, speed or acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/00 Control of position, course, altitude or attitude of land, water, air or space vehicles, e.g. using automatic pilots drive control systems specially adapted for autonomous road vehicles B60W60/00
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/0202 specially adapted to aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 1/101 specially adapted for aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0021 located in the aircraft
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/003 Flight plan management
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0034 Assembly of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/06 for control when on the ground
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0823 Errors, e.g. transmission errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A flight management system with core and supplementary modules is proposed. The core module may include generic applications that implement generic functionalities related to a flight management of the aircraft. The supplementary module may include supplementary applications that implement supplementary functionalities specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs. The supplementary module may be divided into principal and auxiliary partitions (or entities), and the supplementary applications, also referred to as principal applications, may be implemented in the principal partition. One or more auxiliary applications may be implemented in the auxiliary partition. Each auxiliary application may be associated with one or more principal applications such that the execution of the principal application requires the associated auxiliary application to be executed.

Claims

1. A flight management system of an aircraft, comprising:

a core module comprising a plurality of generic applications, the plurality of generic applications being configured such that an execution of each generic application implements a generic functionality related to a management of a flight of the aircraft;

a supplementary module separate from the core module and comprising a plurality of principal applications, the plurality of principal applications being configured such that an execution of each principal application implements a supplementary functionality specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs; and

a generic exchange interface between the core module and the supplementary module, the generic exchange interface being configured to enable messages to be exchanged between the core module and the supplementary module,

wherein the supplementary module comprises a principal partition and an auxiliary partition,

wherein the principal partition comprises the plurality of principal applications implemented therein,

wherein the auxiliary partition comprises at least one auxiliary application implemented therein, each auxiliary application being associated with at least one principal application of the principal partition, the association being such that the execution of the principal application requires an execution of the auxiliary application associated with that principal application, and

wherein the supplementary module further comprises a specific exchange interface between the principal and the auxiliary entities, the specific exchange interface being configured to enable messages to be exchanged between the principal and the auxiliary partitions of the supplementary module.

2. The flight management system of claim 1, wherein each auxiliary supplementary application executes only on reception of input parameters provided by at least one principal supplementary application or at least one generic application of the core module.

3. The flight management system of claim 2, wherein each auxiliary supplementary application comprises one or more computing algorithms.

4. The flight management system of claim 1, wherein each auxiliary supplementary application executes only at a request of at least one principal supplementary application.

5. The flight management system of claim 1, wherein the principal and auxiliary partitions belong to a same Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) equipment.

6. The flight management system of claim 1, wherein the principal and/or the auxiliary partition comprises software.

7. The flight management system of claim 6, wherein the specific exchange interface implements a protocol of encoding data passing therethrough in such a way that the auxiliary partition communicates exclusively with the principal partition and solely by a return message in response to a request sent by a principal application to an auxiliary application.

8. The flight management system of claim 1, wherein the principal and/or the auxiliary partition comprise software components.

9. The flight management system of claim 1,

wherein the core module comprises a core interface configured to interface with an on-board system of the aircraft, the on-board system comprising at least one generic man-machine interface, and

wherein the supplementary module comprises a principal supplementary interface configured to interface with at least one specific man-machine interface connected to the supplementary module.

10. The flight management system of claim 9, wherein the principal supplementary interface enables the supplementary module to access the on-board system of the aircraft via the core module.