Patent ID: 8473120

Claim:
Method for assisting in the management of the flight of an aircraft making it possible to keep to a time constraint, and aiming to reach a constraint point at a required time of arrival, using an estimated time of arrival at said constraint point, said aircraft comprising a flight management system determining a speed strategy aiming to observe said required time of arrival at said constraint point, to within an absolute tolerance, said aircraft also presenting a theoretical speed envelope comprising a theoretical maximum speed profile and a theoretical minimum speed profile, the aircraft being able to reach any speed between said theoretical maximum and theoretical minimum speed profiles, the aircraft also comprising a guidance module making it possible to set a setpoint speed, that the current speed of the aircraft tends to equal, said setpoint speed being assumed to conform to said speed strategy, comprising the following steps: the definition of a constrained speed envelope comprising a constrained maximum speed profile and a constrained minimum speed profile, said constrained speed envelope being strictly included in the theoretical speed envelope, the generation by the flight management system of the speed strategy, said speed strategy necessarily being included in said constrained speed envelope, so that the guidance module has a manoeuvring margin enabling it to adjust the setpoint speed, the adjustment of the setpoint speed by the guidance module if the estimated time of arrival at the constraint point differs from the required time of arrival at said constraint point.