Air traffic management, in designing route structures, drawing up rules for flight in various types of airspace, and in framing the instructions for air traffic controllers, are concerned with predicting the behavior, often on worst case assumptions, of each class of traffic with which they may have to deal. The problems are examined of on-line trajectory prediction to a time-horizon perhaps a little longer than the estimated time of the flight or as short as a few tens of seconds, the object being to predict and avoid collision with terrain or with another aircraft, and to ensure that any in-flight delays due to traffic congestion along the route are absorbed as economically as possible. Military aircraft are concerned with the avoidance of anti-aircraft missiles and in intercepting airborne targets. This latter problem may, very loosely, be regarded as collision avoidance in reverse, and is briefly discussed, as is the problem of terrain-following by high performance low flying military aircraft. The conclusion draws attention to areas where further R and D would seen desirable.
Prediction of Aircraft Trajectories
1990
40 pages
Report
No indication
English
Air Transportation , Aeronautics , Air traffic control , Flight paths , Trajectory control , Trajectory optimization , On-line systems , Air traffic , Airspace , Collision avoidance , Congestion , Flight control , Nap-of-the-earth navigation , Position (Location) , Radar tracking , Foreign technology