Rockwell Collins, Inc.

Marc Ayala

Stephen E Tyson

Benjamin M Helppi

Douglas M McCormick

Rob P Scott

A system for monitoring the center of gravity of an aircraft includes receiving flight plan information regarding a flight plan of an aircraft indicative of planned events to occur during operation of the aircraft; predicting a center of gravity of the aircraft during operation of the aircraft based on the flight plan information; plotting a center of gravity curve based on the predicted center of gravity of the aircraft on a display, the center of gravity curve including a plurality of markers, each marker corresponding to one of the planned events, the location of each marker on the center of gravity curve indicating when during the operation of the aircraft the event is planned to occur, one of the events indicating an in-flight event; and updating the plotted center of gravity curve in real-time during operation of the aircraft based on an actual center of gravity of the aircraft.

Event depiction on center of gravity curve

Systems and methods for use in navigating aircraft are provided. A method includes transmitting messages from a plurality of aircraft within time slots of a data transmission using a data link radio of each of the aircraft. The time slots of the data transmission are divided by time. The master aircraft transmits a message within a first time slot. Each message includes position data, time data, aircraft orientation data, and intended flight path data for the aircraft transmitting the message. The method further includes, for each of the plurality of aircraft, receiving a plurality of received messages transmitted by the other aircraft within the data transmission, and generating a representation of an environment around the aircraft based on the data within the received messages. The representation includes a current position and an intended path for one or more of the other aircraft.

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Robins, IA, United States of America

Marc Ayala