Digital Moving Map Display

Pilots have always needed a way to relate their aircraft state to the real world: “Where am I”? “Where am I going”? “How do I get there”? The translational media has been “paper maps” showing earth coordinates and various projection types with mission significant features such as NAV Aids, terrain information, and cultural details. In todays dynamic cockpit environment, the reading of a latitude-longitude display and finding that position on a map is not conducive to rapid “situational awareness”. One answer is an electronic, graphic display of map information relative to the aircraft.

The work was done under the sponsorship of the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory to demonstrate the basic feasibility of the Digital Moving Map Display for the modern cockpit. Within the effort, the effect of color, declutter, scaling (zoom), map orientation (north-up and track-up), and the quantification of digital storage and processing requirements has been evaluated. This paper summarizes the results.