Aircraft weight and balance system
View Patent ↗Dynamic aircraft/vehicle specific load planning and weight balancing systems and methods are used to automate the process of weighing passengers and their baggage, including carry-on baggage, to accurately and quickly determine the passenger and passenger baggage location on a specific aircraft/vehicle to generate an efficient and precise aircraft load plan and provide data to determine loaded aircraft weight and balance. Digital scale(s) and passenger ticket/boarding pass scanner(s) are used to acquire the weight and location data, which can be fed to a processor to process the data to determine appropriate weight and balance for each flight and/or transmit data to other systems to be included in their determination of vehicle weight and weight distribution/balance.
1. A weight and balance system for determining passenger and baggage weight and distribution in a vehicle in real-time, comprising:
a weighing scale for determining weight of the passengers and baggage;
a scanning device for obtaining data concerning each passenger's location in the vehicle;
an input device for entering data into appropriate calculation fields; and
a processor for calculating the weight and weight distribution of the passengers and baggage in the vehicle on a real time basis based on the passenger weight and baggage weight and location of the passengers and baggage in the vehicle.
2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the scanning device scans a passenger ticket to determine an assigned seat for the passenger.
3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the scanning device scans a passenger ticket for flight information.
4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the scanning device is a bar code scanner.
5. The system according to claim 4 , wherein the scanning device scans baggage bar code tags.
6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the scanning device scans cargo container identification bar code tags.
7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is a PDA or tablet PC device.
8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the processor transmits passenger weight and location data to avionic systems.
9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the input device is a touch-screen.
10. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the weighing scale has a digital output capability.
11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.
12. A method for measuring individual passengers and baggage weight in real-time to be used in the determination of vehicle load weight and balance, comprising:
determining the weight of the passengers and baggage;
scanning passenger tickets to determine assigned seat locations for the passengers;
inputting data to determine appropriate calculation fields; and
determining the passenger and baggage load weight and distribution of the vehicle by processing the determined weight and weight distribution.
13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the determining the passenger and baggage load weight and distribution automatically identifies the passenger to determine the passenger's assigned seat location.
14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the scanning comprises a bar code scanner.
15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the bar code scanner scans baggage bar codes tags.
16. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the bar code scanner scans cargo container identification bar codes tags.
17. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the inputting the data is manually inputted.
18. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising sending the weight and balance distribution information to a user dispatch center.
19. The method according to claim 18 , further comprising sending the weight and weight distribution information to a pilot.
20. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the vehicle is an aircraft.