Patent ID: 8027757

Claim:
A method of aiding management of flights, for successive flights of an aircraft, which are such that a destination of a flight Vn corresponds to an origin of a next flight Vn+1, n being an integer greater than or equal to 1, each flight Vn and Vn+1 being carried out according to a respective flight plan PVn and PVn+1, each comprising a plurality of waypoints, the method comprising: automatically determining initial values of a plurality of characteristic parameters, including the following characteristic parameters: time of transit, speed, altitude, and mass of fuel on board, for said flight Vn, with aid of initial data, of the flight plan PVn and of characteristics related to the aircraft, for each waypoint of said flight plan PVn; automatically determining initial values of said plurality of characteristic parameters for said flight Vn+1 and of characteristics related to the aircraft, for each waypoint of said flight plan PVn+1, with aid of the initial values relating to a destination D 1 of said flight plan PVn; during said flight Vn, replacing, in accordance with actual conditions of said flight Vn, said initial values of at least some of said plurality of characteristic parameters of said flight plan PVn with modified values of said at least some of said plurality of characteristic parameters, for each waypoint of said corresponding flight plan PVn, to obtain an updated set of values of said plurality of characteristic parameters of said flight plan PVn which includes said modified values of said at least some of said plurality of characteristic parameters of said flight plan PVn and said initial values of other characteristic parameters of said plurality of characteristic parameters of said flight plan PVn; forecasting, during the flight Vn, based on said initial values of said plurality of characteristic parameters for the flight Vn+1 and the updated set of values recorded for the flight Vn, including the value of the mass of fuel on board, the expected conduct of the flight Vn+1 based on forecasted initial values of the plurality of characteristic parameters relating to the flight Vn+1; automatically recording, for said flight Vn, the updated set of values of said plurality of characteristic parameters existing at the last waypoint which corresponds to the destination of said flight Vn; and thereafter, automatically updating, based on the updated set of values recorded for the flight Vn, including the value of the mass of fuel on board, the initial values of the plurality of characteristic parameters relating to the flight Vn+1.