METHOD FOR DETERMINING A FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM RENDEZVOUS INTERCEPT POSITION

One popular military aircraft mission is to meet or rendezvous with another aircraft. Presently used systems have limitations in rendezvous distance, low accuracy of computed rendezvous intercept position, and wrong results in special rendezvous scenarios such in polar regions or on a collision path. The present invention makes use of a numerical algorithm to accurately compute the rendezvous interception position with a preselected tolerance/resolution. The algorithm makes no assumption of angles and uses a proven Sodanos equation to compute a distance between two points on the earth or to compute a second position away from a first position at a known distance and bearing. Using the invention, the rendezvous intercept position can be computed with greater accuracy and a further distance in any region of the globe than the prior art methods and can be used even if the aircraft are in a rendezvous or collision/chasing path.