hi guys,this really has nothing to do with flight sim, but its a pretty reasonable question to ask. does anyone know when the first FMC was introduced to the FAA?cheers

As we would recognise it, the first FMC (which at the time was not referred to as an FMC, but the PDCS) was developed in the late 1970s by Boeing and Lear Seigler. It was initially tested on the original Boeing 737 prototype (a 737-100, which Boeing sold to NASA, who used it for experiments such as testing that FMC). That 737 had a second cockpit built in the cabin area, so that control could be passed to pilots sitting in a mock up of the primary cockpit, but there would be the additional safety measure of a normal cockpit up front should things go awry (kind of like the ultimate IFR hood). This set up was used for testing all kinds of cockpit innovations, such as glass gauges and different control wheels etc, and of course that prototype FMC.Originally, the FMC was called the Performance Data Computer System (PDCS), but the name FMC is more catchy, so that's what it ended up as. It showed up around 1978 on actual airliners in service when a nine month official test programme was commenced on two aircraft; one was a Lufthansa 737-200, the other was a Continental Airlines 727-200.The FMC demonstrated a 2.95 percent fuel saving on the 737 for 2 minute increase in flight time over 71 minutes. The 727 demonstrated a 3.94 percent fuel saving, the better figure on the 727 is because it was flying longer sectors than the 737. Note that this FMC (or PDCS as it was then called) had no autothrottle linked to it, since the autothrottle was not fully introduced until about four years later as a retrofit to some aircraft, which is why few 727 have one unless retrofitted, since it was basically after 727 production ended.This means that the FMC in the sense that we know it today, was first introduced as a standard cockpit item in 1984, when Boeing introduced the 737-300. But note that this FMC system was operated with a CDU and not a multifunction CDU. The difference is subtle, but it is basically this: A CDU has a 'Menu' key, which allows access to ACARS, DFDAU etc, and it also has a 'Space' key on the keyboard, so that you can enter datalink messages into the ACARS. The older original single function CDU has neither of those keys and is merely to operate the Flight Management Computer alone, and not able to operate other stuff common to CDUs these days.In case you are curious, the original FMC had a 96K word database and a 16 bit processor. The current NG FMC has a four million word database with a Motorola 68040 processor running at 60Mhz. It has 4Mb of RAM and 32Mb for the database and system software. So FS95 would struggle to run on it LOL. It is made by Smiths Industries. The reason the FMC looks like it does by the way, is because they wanted it to look like a desktop calculator, which had started showing up around the same time, so pilots would be familiar with how it operated and not be overwhelmed by the appearance of new technology in their cockpit.Real FMCs often do not always have very large databases of airports and Nav aids, since airlines don't fly all over the world like we do in FS, which means they don't necessarily need thousands of STARs and SIDs in them. They don't always have all the functions we have either, since the more functions an airline wants for its FMC, the more it has to pay for the software and upgrades, so there are in fact several 'packages' an airline could have for its FMCs, and these can be customer-tweaked versions too. When there is a new AIRAC cycle, or a change to an airport where the aircraft will operate, or a new company procedure, the real FMC has data dumped into it via a PMCIA slot which you can find hidden behind an access panel in the cockpit of an airliner (it's on the rear cockpit bulkhead in a 737NG for example).All that aside, and Boeing's marketing department would doubtless disagree, but technically, the first airliner FMC (if we use the term in the broader sense) was the system fitted to the Airbus A300 in the early 1970s, which enabled the pilot to choose preset thrust settings for various stages of flight based on the entry of temperatures and the selection of flight modes for climb, cruise and descent. It wasn't linked to a navigation system, but it did enable pilots to manage their flight in terms of engine performance, which makes it a flight management computer.Al

Al,That was very interesting reading! Thanks.Stephen

al, i think u just filled my mind with a whole encyclopedia! thanks :(

In case you are curious, the original FMC had a 96K word database and a 16 bit processor. The current NG FMC has a four million word database with a Motorola 68040 processor running at 60Mhz. It has 4Mb of RAM and 32Mb for the database and system software. So FS95 would struggle to run on it LOL.

...I recommend you overclock it to 4.24ghz, buy 6gb of DDR3 RAM with a clock speed of at least 1600mhz, a 480GTX, and a 10,000RPM hard drive dedicated to-- Oh wait. Interesting to hear the computers simulating the plane are thousands of times more powerful than the ones on board the plane :( Alex

Interesting to hear the computers simulating the plane are thousands of times more powerful than the ones on board the plane :(

Well, when you think about it, it probably doesn't need to be doing very much. :(