Method and system for managing a multi-destination flight plan

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017263137-A1
Application number	US-201715424619-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 3, 2017
Priority date	Mar 14, 2016
Publication date	Sep 14, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for managing a multi-destination flight of an aircraft comprises a first step of constructing an initial flight plan of a mission between an endmost departure point and an endmost arrival point, having a series of temporally ordered waypoints. A second step comprises selecting one or more waypoints from among the waypoints, and transforming the selected waypoint or waypoints into one or more corresponding intermediate touchdown points, each intermediate touchdown point having the same initial coordinates as the corresponding waypoint of which it is the transform, and each intermediate touchdown point comprising a computerized relationship of association with a dedicated intermediate arrival procedure, ready to be activated.

First claim

1 . A method for managing a multi-destination flight of an aircraft implemented by an avionics onboard flight management system, comprising a first step consisting in:
constructing an initial flight plan of a mission having a start and an end on the basis of an endmost departure point, of an endmost arrival point, and of a series of temporally ordered waypoints of the aircraft between the endmost departure point corresponding to the start of the mission and the endmost arrival point corresponding to the end of the mission, the endmost departure point, the endmost arrival point and the waypoints being extracted from a navigation database of the aircraft and/or input by a crew; the said management method comprising a second step, executed after the first step, and a third step, executed after the second step;
the second step consisting in
selecting one or more waypoints from among the waypoints defining the initial flight plan constructed, and
transforming the selected waypoint or waypoints into one or more corresponding intermediate touchdown points,
each intermediate touchdown point having the same initial coordinates as the corresponding waypoint of which it is the transform, and
each intermediate touchdown point comprising a simple computerized relationship of association with a dedicated intermediate arrival procedure ready to be activated in a modified and updated flight plan; and

the third step consisting in
activating the intermediate arrival procedure associated with a next current intermediate touchdown point, not yet reached and to be serviced, from among the intermediate touchdown points remaining to be serviced, the activation of the intermediate arrival procedure being implemented with the help of the activation of the corresponding computerized relationship.

2 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 1 , wherein
for each intermediate touchdown point, the intermediate arrival procedure comprises a first intermediate nominal arrival procedure and a second intermediate interrupted approach procedure, the first nominal approach procedure being ready to be activated by priority with respect to the one second intermediate interrupted approach procedure, and/or the intermediate arrival procedure or procedures are selected from a navigation database of the aircraft and/or input by the crew, and then related to their respective intermediate touchdown point during the second step, and/or at least one intermediate touchdown point comprises an additional computerized relationship of association with a dedicated intermediate departure procedure, ready to be activated, the computerized relationship being established during the second step, and/or the navigation database of the aircraft comprises a first standard database containing departure and arrival procedures, airports, waypoints and beacons, published by the states and coded according to the format standardized by AEEC A 424 , and a pilot database containing departure and arrival procedures, airports, waypoints and beacons, created by the crew or a company to mitigate items missing from the standard database.

3 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 1 , wherein each touchdown point created during the second step as transform of a selected waypoint includes a set, associated with the said touchdown point, of default prediction parameters included among an estimated touchdown time, an estimated approach time, an estimated departure time, an estimation of the fuel consumed during the corresponding intermediate approach and departure phases of the approach and departure procedures, and during the touchdown phase, and a forecast of updates of the weights of fuel, of freight and of passengers,
the estimated touchdown time being inserted by the crew in the form of a default setting, the estimated approach time and the estimated time being either inserted by the crew or an external mission preparation system in the form of a first approach time default setting and of a second approach time default setting, or estimated by the flight management system.

4 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 1 , wherein the third step also consists in
activating the intermediate arrival procedure associated with the next current intermediate touchdown point, not yet reached and to be serviced, from among the intermediate touchdown points remaining to be serviced, and constructing a nominal-approach and intermediate missed-approach leg, made up of intermediate-approach paths, on the basis of the activated intermediate arrival procedure, and inserting the said constructed nominal-approach and intermediate interrupted-approach leg before the next current intermediate touchdown point, and then saving the flight plan thus modified as an updated flight plan.

5 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 4 wherein,
when the next current intermediate touchdown point, not yet reached and to be serviced, comprises an additional computerized relationship of association with a dedicated intermediate departure procedure, ready to be activated, the third step also consists in
activating the intermediate departure procedure associated with the next current intermediate touchdown point, not yet reached and to be serviced, and
constructing an intermediate departure leg, made up of a sequence of intermediate departure paths, on the basis of the activated intermediate departure procedure, and inserting the said intermediate departure leg constructed after the next current intermediate touchdown point, not yet reached and to be serviced, and
integrating the insertion of the said intermediate departure leg into the updating of the flight plan.

6 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 4 , wherein at the end of the third step, an updating of the trajectory predictions is performed which takes into account the insertion of the intermediate nominal approach leg or of the intermediate interrupted approach leg and if appropriate the departure leg.

7 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 4 , comprising a fourth step, executed after the third step and during the phase of touchdown at the current intermediate touchdown point which has just been reached, the fourth step consisting in
updating the prediction parameters at the current touchdown point relating to the weight of fuel, of freight and of passengers, the quantity of fuel being updated automatically by the reading of one or more fuel gauges when the aircraft's avionics system so allows or fed in by crew input during a refuelling operation; and then updating the predictions over the entire flight plan in terms of time and of fuel available on the basis of the update of prediction parameters at the touchdown point and of the approach leg of the current touchdown point actually flown.

8 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 7 , wherein at the end of the fourth step, the flight management system searches for whether there exists a next current intermediate touchdown point, not yet reached and to be serviced, from among the intermediate touchdown points remaining to be serviced, and in the affirmative, the execution of the third step is repeated during or after the phase of touchdown at the current intermediate touchdown point.

9 . The method for managing a multi-destination flight according to claim 1 , wherein
when a command input by the crew prescribes the deletion of a touchdown point not yet serviced, or the inverse transformation of a touchdown point not yet serviced into a corresponding waypoint, or the addition

Assignees

• Thales Sa

Inventors

• Nostry Frédéric
• Harlez Christophe

Classifications

• G08G5/025 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0047

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0039

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/0034

  Physics · mapped topic

• G05D1/101

  specially adapted for aircraft · CPC title