The future functionalities of the flight management system

The availability of new Communication, Navigation and Surveillance technologies provides the basis to move towards advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts. Some of these concepts will impact the airborne Flight Management System (FMS) by introducing new functions with different flight time horizons. In this discussion, two main flight time horizon are defined:The tactical flight time horizon is between 30s and 10mn ahead of the aircraft current position. Airborne separation from traffic, terrain and adverse weather will be introduced in this time horizon as a tactical function.The strategic flight time horizon is more than 10mn ahead of the aircraft current position. Weather datafusion, enroute inflight replanning assistance and air-ground trajectory negotiation will be introduced in this time horizon as strategic functions.The organisation of the associated future flight management system can be synthesised in the scheme (figure 1). The data to be displayed to the pilot for his flight awareness are functions of the flight phase, the type of airspace and of the type of situation encountered.Globally these data can be shared as functions of their flight time horizons, and their topic, as it is described in the table below. In the cells are indicated the flight objects that these data address.SEXTANT as a major avionics manufacturer is leading research and development activities in the area of ATM related airborne flight management functions. Their existing or expected findings are described in this article.