The Boeing Company

Christian Grabow

Lars Fucke

Luis P D'Alto

A system and method for steering aircraft along a predetermined track is disclosed herein. The system and method relate to steering an aircraft along a lateral path (e.g. a track described by reference to latitude and longitude) by a method comprising: calculating a nominal track correction; providing an upper limit and a lower limit for the nominal track correction; setting a desired track correction as: (i) the nominal track correction if the nominal track is between the upper limit and the lower limit; (ii) the upper limit if the nominal track correction is greater than or equal to the upper limit; or (iii) the lower limit if the nominal track correction is less than or equal to the lower limit; and steering the aircraft using the desired track correction.

Aircraft guidance method and system

Methods and systems for determining a change of speed of an aircraft for enabling the avoidance of conflicts between aircraft trajectories. The method of determining a change in speed of an aircraft, comprises the steps of: defining a merge point and a tie point; monitoring a first aircraft; determining when the first aircraft passes the tie point; providing trajectory data; predicting a trajectory of a second aircraft using the trajectory data; defining a minimum permissible longitudinal spacing; predicting a longitudinal spacing between the first and second aircraft at the merge point based on the predicted trajectory; and if the minimum permissible longitudinal spacing is greater than the predicted longitudinal spacing then calculating a proposed change in speed of the second aircraft that will result in the longitudinal spacing between the first and second aircraft at the merge point being greater than or equal to the minimum permissible longitudinal spacing.

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Madrid, Spain

Christian Grabow