Patent ID: 8630754

Claim:
A method for calculating a trajectory flow by an aircraft by changing a series of legs together in an air navigation procedure, said trajectory being initially defined by a series of legs, the legs forming part of an initial family of legs, said initial family of legs comprising at least one of a fixed leg, said fixed leg selected from the group consisting of initial fix (IF), course to a fix (CF), direct to a fix (DF), track between two fixes (TF), arc DME to a fix (AF), radius to a fix (RF), track from fix to distance (FC), and track from fix to DME distance (FD); a floating leg, said floating leg selected from the group consisting of heading to altitude (VA), course to altitude (CA), fix to altitude (FA), heading to intercept (VI), course to intercept (CI), heading to DME distance (VD), course to DME distance (CD), heading to radial (VR), course to radial (CR) head to manual (VM), and fix to manual (FM); a holding procedure leg, said holding procedure leg selected from the group consisting of hippodrome to manual termination (HM), hippodrome to altitude termination (HA), and hippodrome to fix termination (HF); or a course reversal leg, said course reversal leg consisting of fix to manual (PI), said method comprising the following steps: determining, via a processor, a restricted family of legs included in the initial family of legs, so that each leg not belonging to the restricted family corresponds to a combination of legs belonging to the restricted family, said restricted family comprising at most two floating legs; and replacing for calculation, via a processor, of said flown trajectory in the navigation procedure the legs not belonging to the restricted family with combinations of legs belonging to the restricted family.