Systems and Methods for Processing Flight Information

• US 20130085669A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Bailey, Louis J., Hale, Ryan D.
• Granted Patent: US 10,102,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/467
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0013 with a ground station
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0039 Modification of a flight plan
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 5/0091 for monitoring atmospheric conditions radar or analogous systems specially adapted for meteorological use G01S13/95; meteorology G01W

Abstract

Systems and methods for processing flight information. Using a flight plan/route message and other flight information (aircraft type and navigation database information), the portion of the message containing the flight plan or route is decoded and translated to construct a ground-based flight route comprising a list of waypoints and associated flight information. The list of waypoints may then used in calculations performed by a flight trajectory predictor to identify spatially associated weather information and/or to create an updated flight plan or route (e.g., by adding or changing waypoints in a flight object) and thereafter transmit that information to users. Prior to transmitting any updated flight plan/route, the associated waypoints and other flight information must be translated and encoded into the required format for inclusion in an outgoing (i.e., uplinked) flight plan/route message.

Claims

1. A method for processing flight information comprising:

(a) obtaining a flight plan/route message comprising payload data representing a flight plan/route of an aircraft;

(b) processing the payload data representing said flight plan/route to derive a list of waypoints and associated flight information in a form suitable for use by a user;

(c) processing the list of waypoints and associated flight information to derive payload data representing an updated flight plan/route of said aircraft;

(d) constructing an updated flight plan/route message that includes said payload data representing said updated flight plan/route; and

(e) making available said updated flight plan/route message with or without environmental information.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said payload data in said obtained flight plan/route message is encrypted, and operation (b) comprises decrypting said encrypted payload data, and operation (c) comprises encrypting said payload data representing said updated flight plan/route.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein operation (b) comprises decoding some of said payload data representing said flight plan/route into waypoints based at least in part on information retrieved from a navigation database.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, further comprising storing said list of waypoints in said flight object and translating said list of waypoints in said flight object from a form not suitable for use by a user to a form suitable for use by said user.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein operation (c) comprises translating waypoints included in said list into an identifier of an airway or flight procedure by reference to a navigation database, further comprising storing said identifier in an appropriate field of said flight object.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein operation (c) further comprises encoding waypoints, airways, flight procedures and other flight information in accordance with a pre-specified format for message payload data.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein operations (b) and (c) respectively involve decoding and encoding schemes which are a function of an aircraft type for said aircraft or an airline operating said aircraft.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said transmitted updated flight plan/route message is addressed to an aircraft or to a ground-based operations center.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein operations (b), (c) and (d) are performed as a function of the available flight information, identified source of the flight information or user preference data.

10. A system for processing flight information, comprising a processor programmed to perform the following operations:

(a) obtaining a flight plan/route message comprising payload data representing a flight plan/route of an aircraft;

(b) processing the payload data representing said flight plan/route to derive a list of waypoints and associated flight information in a form suitable for use by a user;

(c) processing the list of waypoints and associated flight information to derive payload data representing an updated flight plan/route of said aircraft;

(d) constructing an updated flight plan/route message that includes said payload data representing said updated flight plan/route; and

(e) making available said updated flight plan/route message with or without environmental information.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein said payload data in said obtained flight plan/route message is encrypted, and operation (b) comprises decrypting said encrypted payload data, and operation (c) comprises encrypting said payload data representing said updated flight plan/route.

12. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein operation (b) comprises decoding some of said payload data representing said flight plan/route into waypoints based at least in part on information retrieved from a navigation database.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, further comprising storing said list of waypoints in said flight object and translating said list of waypoints in said flight object from a form not suitable for use by a user to a form suitable for use by said user.

14. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein operation (c) comprises translating waypoints included in said list into an identifier of an airway or flight procedure by reference to said navigation database, further comprising storing said identifier in an appropriate field of said flight object.

15. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein operation (c) further comprises encoding waypoints, airways, flight procedures and other flight information in accordance with a pre-specified format for message payload data.

16. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein operations (b) and (c) respectively involve decoding and encoding schemes which are a function of an aircraft type for said aircraft or an airline operating said aircraft.

17. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein said transmitted updated flight plan/route message is addressed to an aircraft or to a ground-based operations center.

18. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein operations (b), (c) and (d) are performed as a function of the available flight information, identified source of the flight information or user preference data.

19. A system for processing flight information comprising a flight object, and a flight plan/route processor capable of communicating with a navigation database and said flight object, wherein said flight plan/route processor is programmed to perform the following operations:

(a) obtaining a flight plan/route message comprising payload data representing a flight plan/route of an aircraft;

(b) parsing the payload data in said obtained flight plan/route message to extract flight information;

(c) decoding components of said flight information to derive a list of waypoints and associated flight information;

(d) storing said list of waypoints and associated flight information in said flight object; and

(e) translating said list of waypoints in said flight object into a list of waypoints suitable for use by a user.

20. The system as recited in claim 19, wherein at least one of the waypoints included in said stored list of waypoints was not explicitly identified in said payload data and instead was retrieved from said navigation database.

21. A system for processing flight information comprising:

a flight object that stores a list of waypoints associated with a flight plan/route of an aircraft; and

a flight plan/route processor capable of communicating with a navigation database and said flight object, wherein said flight plan/route processor is programmed to perform the following operations;

(a) translating said list of waypoints into a sequence of flight information comprising waypoints, flight levels, fixes, transitions, airways and flight procedures, said sequence of flight information representing said flight plan/route for said aircraft;

(b) encoding said sequence of flight information to form message payload data having a specified format associated with said aircraft or an airline operating said aircraft;

(c) constructing a flight plan/route message that includes said message payload data; and

(d) making available said flight plan/route message with or without environmental information.

22. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein said transmitted flight plan/route message is addressed to an aircraft or to a ground-based operations center.