Digital Flight Management Systems?

Question

A few years ago I saw a documentary on the Lockheed-Martin F-16 fighter and it showed the pilot no longer having to manually enter all of his mission's parameters (nav waypoints, radio frequencies, basic projected weather data enroute) into his autopilot and navigation computer but instead he simply slipped in a pocketbook-sized portable data module into the aircraft's Flight Management System which automatically downloaded all that information into it. These data modules were apparently prepared ahead of time prior to the flight and were ready and available to the flight crews following their mission briefings. It was obviously a much more efficient system as far as saving time for the flight crews.

My question is this: do similar systems exist for airliners - especially "heavy jets" - and how long have they been in use by the airlines?

Thanks in advance,

N.

Answer 1

Nearly identical systems have been in use on airliners for years.

Answer 2

Even our old C130 aircraft have had this capability since the late eighties. With older technology, the transfer module is an inch thick, about 3x6 inches, and only has 256k of memory available, kept by a lithium battery.

Quite a few systems use a PCMCIA card like the one you saw.

Answer 3

Large commercial aircraft have been delivered with "Flight Management Systems" from the time of the first B-757 and -767 deliveries in the early 80s.  The FMS contains a navigation database containing waypoint and airway infomation for the areas where the aircraft normally flies.  The FMS also contains frequencies for radio nav aids (e.g., VOR, DME, ILS) and information on airport runways.  A data module is not used to upload route information prior to dispatch. Instead, the vast majority of airlines use the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), which is an air/ground radio datalink system, to upload the aircraft's flight plan, weather info, fuel burn estimates, weight and balance info, runway-specific takeoff power settings, pitch trim settings, and other information needed prior to dispatch.  FMS can also be used to calculate fuel-efficient climb and descent profiles and manage engine thrust and airspeed accordingly

an example:  http://www51.honeywell.com/aero/technolo...

Answer 4

Short answer: Yes, and less than 10 years, at least on the larger scale. Now, even small planes can have GPS information input to their GPS systems on those little SD cards or thumb drives, depending on the type. I've seen GPS units in Cessna 172s with this capability.