AFGWC Computer Flight Planning for DOD Aviation

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AFGWC Computer Flight Planning for DOD Aviation

R. F. Woodnal / D. G. Caviness / P. H. Neu

In 1961 the Global Weather Central at Offutt Air Force Base Nebraska developed a prototype computer program which produced an automated flight plan using forecast wind fields. Among the first users was the President's flight in Air Force 1. Since then there has evolved an extensive flight simulation capability which each day produces hundreds of computer flight plans using forecast and climatological winds available 24 hours a day. These global computer flight plans, (CFPs), produced at the Air Force Global Weather Central (AFGWC) are used by the USAF's Military Airlift Command (MAC), the Strategic Air Command (SAC), the Tactical Air Command (TAC) and other DoD units. This aviation application is one of the more effective uses of digital computers in that countless computations are performed involving not only the environmental factors, aircraft characteristics and mission requirements, but also involving the recording, displaying and transmitting of the data to the aircraft crew, the mission controllers and the meteorologists. This paper briefly describes the supporting computer and communications systems, and the four major components of the computer flight plan production - the real time operating system, the aircraft operational flight data system, the simulation of each flight, and the application of the meteorological data base.