AIRCRAFT LOAD PLANNING AND THE COMPUTER - DESCRIPTION AND REVIEW

Concerns related to the efficient use of available transport space along with greater accessibility to computer based approaches are two major factors which have contributed to a growing interest in the problem of aircraft load planning during the last several years. This paper focuses on the aircraft load planning problem faced by the military and is developed with the following objectives: (1) To describe the problem faced by military and provide insights as to how it is 'solved' using manual procedures; (2) to review work relevant to the development of computer assisted approaches. The notion of computer assisted aircraft load planning is also extended to include microcomputer and interactive graphics technology. Results obtained through the use of existing approaches as well as comments on future directions are also provided.