Design and Development of an Integrated Flight Planning and Rehearsal System Based on GIS and Navigation Database

In modern civil aviation operations, the effective performance of pre-flight flight planning is the key of a safe flight, and the changing air traffic environment often requires modifying the pre-determined flight plan or even en route re-planning. This paper proposes an integrated system framework for the construction, re-planning, rehearsal and evaluation of computerized flight plans (CFP): the flight plan management and rehearsal system (FMRS). It provides interactive, graphic user interface - based ways of constructing flight routes using the navigation database and geographic information system (GIS), and the CFP parameters can be calculated automatically based on real performance data of various types of aircrafts. Simulation models of aircraft dynamics and airborne subsystems including the automatic flight control, navigation sensors and cockpit instruments are also integrated to support the rehearsal and evaluation of flight plans, and assist in analyzing en-route re-planning operations. All subsystems and components are integrated into an overall platform which is based on an inter-communication architecture and can be implemented on either centralized or distributed simulation platforms. Simulation and system evaluation results obtained from actual commercial flight routes demonstrate that the proposed system can effectively facilitate the preparation and evaluation of CFPs, and support the CFP re-planning decision-making process and operations.