The Boeing Company

Caroline Klein

Geun Il Kim

Roy S Alcantara

Steven J Moskalik

Monica S Alcabin

Richard A Herald

Yian Guan

A flight management system which is capable of monitoring changes in airplane characteristics. The flight management system is configured with a datalink management function that enables the uploading of updated performance table data from a ground station via a datalink. Upon receipt of updated aerodynamic and propulsion performance data via the datalink, the flight management system creates or updates a set of airplane performance tables or curves in a database which can be utilized to compute more accurate flight profile and trip prediction parameters, such as estimated time of arrival and predicted fuel consumption quantity.

Flight management system having performance table datalink capability

A flight management system which has access to customized information concerning the actual characteristics of a specific airplane or a specific fleet of airplanes of the same model when computing a predicted flight profile and associated trip prediction parameters. This up-to-date airplane-specific or fleet-specific information is digital data configured as a separately loadable database called a 'customized performance database'. This customized performance database contains a smaller set of performance data&#x2014;such as fuel flow correction, drag coefficient correction, and re-optimized speed/altitude tables&#x2014;than is contained in the baseline performance database. The flight management system will continue to use a baseline performance database as a 'limit' on the numbers computed using the customized performance database. The customized performance database can include tables or curves that are customizable by airlines.

Flight management system having customized performance database

Growing community of inventors

Bothell, WA, United States of America

Caroline Klein