Method and system for the updating of a flight plan

A system provided onboard an aircraft, the system adapted to verify an updated flight plan of the aircraft, the system including at least a flight management system and an avionics device external the flight management system, the flight management system and the device external to the flight management system both being provided on the aircraft, the system adapted to perform the steps of:

• receiving, at the avionics device external to the flight management system, the updated flight plan from a source external to the aircraft,
• receiving, at the flight management system, the updated flight plan from the avionics device external the flight management system;
• generating, via the flight management system, a set of updated flight parameters comprising, at least one of a fuel usage or a flight time;
• comparing, via the flight management system, the set of updated flight parameters with a set of current flight parameters to determine a difference in at least one of fuel usage or flight time;
• generating, via the flight management system, a set of environmental conditions comprising, at least one of a weather pattern or an air-traffic pattern to define a set of received environmental conditions;
• performing, via at least one of either the flight management system or the avionics device external the flight management system, a series of plausibility checks based of the comparing;
• in response to the series of plausibility checks, automatically updating at least a portion of the flight plan if plausible or generating an indication if there is an implausible condition;
• and
• operating the aircraft according to the updated flight plan.

A method for updating a flight plan of an aircraft having a flight management system provided onboard the aircraft, the method comprising:

• receiving, at the flight management system, an update to at least a portion of a flight plan from an avionics device that is external the flight management system, the update having a cryptographic key and at least one updated value to be input to the flight plan;
• at least one of automatically authenticating or automatically validating, via the flight management system, the update to define a valid update, wherein:
• the automatically authenticating being performed by:
• retrieving, via a memory accessible to the flight management system, a valid key related to the avionics device;
• and
• comparing, via the flight management system, the cryptographic key with the valid key;
• the automatically validating being performed by:
• retrieving, via the memory accessible to the flight management system, a set of acceptable values corresponding to the at least one updated value;
• and
• determining, via the flight management system, if the at least one updated values is equal to or falls within to the set of acceptable values;
• generating with the valid update, via the flight management system, a set of updated flight parameters comprising, at least one of a fuel usage or a flight time;
• comparing, via the flight management system, the set of updated flight parameters with a set of current flight parameters to determine a difference in at least one of fuel usage or flight time;
• receiving, via the flight management system, a set of environmental conditions comprising, at least one of a weather pattern or an air-traffic pattern to define a set of received environmental conditions;
• performing, via at least one of the flight management system or the device external the flight management system, a series of plausibility checks based of the comparing;
• in response to the series of plausibility checks, automatically updating the at least the portion of the flight plan if plausible or generating an implausible indication if there is an implausible condition;
• and
• operating the aircraft according to the updated flight plan.