Patent ID: 8812180

Claim:
A method for automatically generating and managing a vertical profile of a flight plan of an aircraft, the flight plan comprising waypoints to be flown over by the aircraft, the method comprising: (a) receiving managing parameters provided by an operator, at a user input device, or provided by a database; (b) selecting, by a flight management system unit, a plurality of successive standard cruise sections based on the managing parameters, each cruise section corresponding to one of a plurality of predetermined cruise sections available to the flight management system unit, wherein each cruise section is defined by a waypoint corresponding to a section starting point and a waypoint corresponding to a section ending point, and each cruise section comprises: a transition phase allowing to reach a level and defined by a transition type, a transition mode, and a transition speed, and a level phase defining the level and defined by a level altitude and a level speed; (c) joining, by the flight management system unit, the plurality of successive flight sections together to form automatically the vertical profile of the flight plan, wherein the cruise sections are able to be inserted, removed, and sequenced in the flight plan in any order such that the ending point of any cruise section that precedes another cruise section corresponds to the starting point of the cruise section directly following it; (d) supplying, via links connected to the flight management system unit, the vertical profile of the flight plan to user means including a display screen.