The Boeing Company
Flight management system having customized performance database

Abstract:

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--such as fuel flow correction, drag coefficient correction, and re-optimized speed/altitude tables--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.