Flight management system of an aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9606534-B2
Application number	US-201414552822-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2014
Priority date	Nov 26, 2013
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

A flight management system architecture with two separate modules is proposed. In the core module, generic functionalities relative to the flight management of the aircraft are implemented. In the supplementary module, supplementary functions are implemented. The supplementary functionalities include functionalities specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs such as the specific aircraft model, a family of airdraft, a company, an alliance, and so on. The flight management system also includes a message exchange interface in which enables the core and supplementary modules to exchanges messages with each other. The core and supplementary modules includes corresponding core module and supplementary module interfacing functionalities that respectively interface with generic and specific man-machine interfaces.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A flight management system of an aircraft, comprising, onboard the aircraft:
a core module that implements one or more core functionalities related to a flight management of the aircraft;
a supplementary module that implements one or more supplementary functionalities specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs; and
an exchange interface connected only between the core module and the supplementary module that enables messages to be exchanged between the core module and the supplementary module,
wherein the core module comprises a core interface, which is different from the exchange interface, that interfaces 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 supplementary interface, which is different from the exchange interface, that interfaces with a specific man-machine interface connected to the supplementary module
wherein the core module is implemented in a core partition and the supplementary module is implemented in a supplementary partition, the core partition and the supplementary partition being separate partitions of a computing system onboard the aircraft, such that the core partition is segregated spatially and/or temporally from the supplementary partition,
wherein two partitions are temporally segregated when activities of one partition do not affect timings of activities of the other partition,
wherein two partitions are spatially segregated when one partition is prevented from accessing a memory space of the other partition, and
wherein the exchange interface comprises ports through which interpartition messages pass, the interpartition messages being the messages exchanged between the core module and the supplementary module.

2. The flight management system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the supplementary functionalities entity to which the aircraft belongs include a specific aircraft model, a family of aircraft, a company, an alliance and/or all or part of a fleet of aircraft.

3. The flight management system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the supplementary interface is configured to enable the supplementary module to access the on board systems of the aircraft, either directly or indirectly via the core interface.

4. The flight management system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each core functionality of the core module and/or each supplementary functionality the supplementary module is implemented in at least one partition to which is allocated at least one port, and
wherein the core and the supplementary functionalities communicate with each other via the ports.

5. The flight management system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the core and the supplementary functionalities communicate with each other by a mechanism of response to requests respectively addressed to the functionalities.

6. The flight management system as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the core module and the supplementary module are implemented on a same hardware equipment.

7. The flight management system as claimed in claim 4 ,
wherein the core module and the supplementary module are implemented in separate hardware equipment, and
wherein the hardware equipment of the core and supplementary modules belong to a network allowing them to communicate with each other.

8. A flight management system of an aircraft, comprising:
a core module that implements one or more core functionalities related to a flight management of the aircraft;
a supplementary module that implements one or more supplementary functionalities specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs; and
an exchange interface that enables messages to be exchanged between the core module and the supplementary module,
the core module comprising a core interface, which is different from the exchange interface, that interfaces with an on-board system of the aircraft, the on-board system comprising at least one generic man machine interface,
the supplementary module comprising a supplementary interface, which is different from the exchange interface, that interfaces with a specific man-machine interface connected to the supplementary module, and
the core module being configured to implement at least one of the following core functionalities related to the flight management of the aircraft:
a flight plan management functionality,
a trajectory calculation functionality to calculate a trajectory in space,
a prediction functionality to predict values taken along a given trajectory of the aircraft by physical quantities related to flight conditions,
an extrapolation functionality to extrapolate values taken along a given trajectory of the aircraft by physical quantities related to meteorological conditions based on a given model,
a position calculation functionality to calculate a current position of the aircraft,
a deviation calculation functionality to calculate deviations between the current position of the aircraft and a position of a given theoretical trajectory,
a guidance functionality to generate guidance instructions to guide the aircraft on a given trajectory,
one or more cockpit management functionalities to enable the cockpit of the aircraft to be managed according to a split type philosophy,
an aerodrome identification functionality to identify the aerodromes closest to the current position of the aircraft,
a flight plan transmission functionality to transmit flight plan availability data, and
a flight plan insertion functionality to insert a new flight plan,
wherein the core module is implemented in a core partition and the supplementary module is implemented in a supplementary partition, the core partition and the supplementary partition being separate partitions of a computing system onboard the aircraft, such that the core partition is segregated spatially and/or temporally from the supplementary partition,
wherein two partitions are temporally segregated when activities of one partition do not affect timings of activities of the other partition,
wherein two partitions are spatially segregated when one partition is prevented from accessing a memory space of the other partition, and
wherein the exchange interface comprises ports through which interpartition messages pass, the interpartition messages being the messages exchanged between the core module and the supplementary module.

9. The flight management system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the supplementary module is configured to implement at least one of the following supplementary functionalities:
a search control functionality to control a search to identify closest aerodromes,
a classification functionality to classify, according to criteria chosen by a crew in a request, results obtained in response to the request,
an entity selection functionality to select an entity in response to a request,
a flight plan generation functionality to generate an alternative flight plan to an already established flight plan, and
a flight plan check functionality to check for an availability of a flight plan.

10. A flight management system of an aircraft, comprising, onboard the aircraft:
a core module implemented in a core partition, the core module comprising one or more core elements, each core element implementing a corresponding core functionality related to a flight management of the aircraft;
a supplementary module implemented in a supplementary partition, the supplementary module comprising one or more supplementary elements, each supplementary element implementing a corresponding supplementary functionality specific to an entity to which the aircraft belongs; and
an exchange interface connected only between the core m

Assignees

• Airbus Operations Sas

Inventors

• Mere Jean-Claude
• Neri Pierre
• Bernat Julien
• Vie Marc

Classifications

• G01C23/00

  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 title

• G08G5/06

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G08G5/0034

  Physics · mapped topic

• G08G5/003

  Physics · mapped topic