Patent ID: 8386158

Claim:
A method for assisting in management of relative spacing between aircraft, implemented in a following aircraft located on an approach trajectory substantially identical to that of a target aircraft preceding the following aircraft, the method comprising the following steps: collection, at successive time intervals, of information relating to successive positions of the target aircraft, constituting a first series of the successive positions of the target aircraft associated with corresponding successive times, analysis of said first series, comprising: calculating successive values of the relative spacing, in distance or in time, between the following aircraft and the target aircraft and comparing the successive values of the relative spacing to a required relative spacing, constructing a second series comprising predictive successive relative spacings, at successive times separated by said regular time interval, between the following aircraft and the target aircraft, and determining whether the second series is increasing, which indicates that the relative spacing between the following aircraft and the target aircraft is increasing, whether the second series is decreasing, which indicates that the relative spacing between the following aircraft and the target aircraft is reducing, or whether the second series is constant, which indicates that the relative spacing between the following aircraft and the target aircraft is stable, and determination of a speed setpoint of the following aircraft so as to: control the relative spacing between the following aircraft and the target aircraft so that the relative spacing between the following aircraft and the target aircraft observes the required relative spacing, to within a tolerance.