Trajectory Generation - An Automation Concept of the Future

The authors review military and commercial developments over the past decade that relate to trajectory generation. Airborne mission replanning and pilot decision assistance that use trajectory generation are described. The Integrated Flight Management activity which integrates previous work into a cohesive system development is described. Trajectory generation applied to intra-flight time-space coordination is described in terms of improved combat effectiveness. In the view of the authors, trajectory generation is the key and central design philosophy for developing future integrated, automatic flight management systems.