Augmentation for Synthetic Vision Displays – An Energy Based Approach

To provide information about the position and orientation of the aircraft relative to the required flight path, several experimental synthetic vision display formats include a depiction of this path by means of a so-called highway-or tunnel-in-the-sky, sometimes augmented with a position predictor. To accurately track both a vertical path and a commanded velocity, energy management is required. The conventional position predictor supports path tracking but requires the pilot to use the resulting velocity error for thrust control. This paper discusses the development of an enhancement to the position predictor based on energy management considerations. The enhanced predictor provides the information needed to maintain energy awareness and allows an anticipatory thrust control strategy to be applied.