The concept of flexible autonomous aircraft operations, or "free flight", requires much greater access to flight information services and weather information than is currently available to the aviation community. For example, part of the concept requires the availability of accurate weather observation and forecast information, which can be transmitted to aircraft in flight, to allow Flight Management Systems to optimize fuel consumption. The data linking and dissemination of flight information service products to the cockpit are necessary to achieve the full benefits from implementation of the future air navigation system. This paper discusses development of a server that will support the receipt, storage, and delivery of graphic and text weather products to the cockpit. The proposed server will receive weather products from NWS and commercial weather providers and store them in a database. Aircraft may request products over data links such as ACARS or VHF Data Link (VDL) Mode 2 and display them on a graphic display in the cockpit. This paper also discusses the various data link systems available to the aviation community
The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology