ABSTRACT
The Flight Management System (FMS) provides the primary navigation, flight planning, and optimized route determination and en route guidance for the aircraft and is typically comprised of the following interrelated functions: navigation, flight planning, trajectory prediction, performance computations, and guidance. Today, FMSs can vary significantly in levels of capability because of the various aviation markets they are intended to serve. These range from simple point to point lateral navigators to the more sophisticated multi-sensor navigation, optimized four-dimensional flight planning/guidance systems. With its current role in the aircraft, the FMS becomes a primary player in the current and future communications navigation surveillance for air traffic management environment. Part of the flight planning process is to specify forecast conditions for temperatures and winds that will be encountered during the flight. These forecast conditions help the FMS to refine the trajectory predictions to provide more accurate determination of estimated times of arrival, fuel burn, rates of climb/descent, and leg transition construction.
