Aircraft passenger luggage bin load weight and balance system

A load weight and balance system for passenger luggage storage bins in an aircraft, comprising:

• at least one sensor coupled to each of the passenger luggage storage bins in the aircraft for providing an output signal proportional a weight of any luggage in an associated passenger luggage storage bin;
• a main display for providing a visual indication of a storage status of all of the passenger luggage storage bins;
• and
• a processor coupled to receive the output signals from each of the at least one sensors and which is configured to:
• calculate, based upon the output signals from the at least one sensors, whether or not each of the associated passenger luggage storage bins is within a predetermined weight value;
• provide a signal to the main display to cause the main display to indicate whether or not each of the passenger luggage storage bins is within the predetermined weight value;
• calculate a balance state of the aircraft based on distribution of passenger luggage storage bin weights across the aircraft;
• determine a first redistribution of contents of at least some of the passenger luggage storage bins in the aircraft to improve the balance state responsive to the processor determining that the distribution of the passenger luggage storage bin weights is not balanced, and wherein determining the first redistribution includes identifying that moving a first item from a first passenger luggage storage bin to a second passenger luggage storage bin improves the balance state;
• and
• display instructions at the main display, wherein the instructions include an instruction to move the first item from the first passenger luggage storage bin to the second passenger luggage storage bin.

A method for balancing a load weight of passenger luggage storage bins in an aircraft, comprising the steps of:

• determining, for each passenger luggage storage bin of a plurality of passenger luggage storage bins, a weight of items within that passenger luggage storage bin;
• determining a distribution of passenger luggage storage bin weights across the aircraft;
• determining a balance state of the aircraft based on the distribution of passenger luggage storage bin weights across the aircraft;
• determining a first redistribution of contents of at least some of the passenger luggage storage bins in the aircraft to improve the balance state responsive to a determination that the distribution of the passenger luggage storage bin weights is not balanced, and determining the first redistribution includes identifying that moving a first item from a first passenger luggage storage bin to a second passenger luggage storage bin improves the balance state;
• and
• displaying instructions at a main display, wherein the instructions include an instruction to move the first item from the first passenger luggage storage bin to the second passenger luggage storage bin.