B737 flight management computer flight plan trajectory computation and analysis

One function of the Smiths Industries Flight Management Computer (FMC), currently utilized in 737 aircraft, is to construct an accurate three-dimensional flight path from the origin airport to the destination airport using the route, environmental and aircraft performance parameters specified by the pilot. This computed flight trajectory is a complex prediction of how the aircraft will fly the lateral route in the vertical space dictated by cruise altitude and waypoint altitude and speed constraints. Because the FMC computed flight profile is the basis for flight planning, ATC reporting and most importantly, actual aircraft control, the ability to easily examine and analyze FMC computed profiles for various routes has been requested by airline and air traffic support personnel. This paper presents an overview of FMC flight profile construction and a PC based Windows software program that Smiths Industries (SI) has developed to facilitate the engineering and analysis of routes and procedures which must be flown by the aircraft under automated FMC control