A critical point on a runway indicates a point at which an aircraft may experience a runway overrun if landing beyond the critical point. A path projection is extended from the aircraft at a descent slope angle to determine whether the aircraft will land beyond the critical point at the current descent slope. Timely alerts may be provided by accounting for the time required to announce a distance value, and the distance traveled during the announcement.

Methods and apparatus are provided for generating an integrated vertical situation display. The method comprises generating a profile view frame, producing a first profile view of a first track of the vehicle in the profile view frame beginning at about a current position of the vehicle and ending at about a predetermined location, and extending a second profile view of a second track of the vehicle from about the predetermined location. The apparatus comprises a display configured to display a profile view frame and a specially configured processor coupled to the display. The processor is configured to produce a first profile view relating to a first track of the vehicle beginning at about a current position of the vehicle and ending at a predetermined location, and generate a second profile view relating to a second track of the vehicle extending from about the predetermined location.

A vertical deviation indicator and predictor includes a vertical deviation scale having a plurality of vertically spaced markers, one of the markers indicating the vehicle's present vertical position. Current vertical flight path segment symbols are selectively superimposable over the vertical deviation scale in accordance with the vehicle's current vertical flight path segment. Next vertical flight path segment symbols are selectively superimposable over the vertical deviation scale in accordance with the vehicle's next vertical flight path segment, the position thereof being determined by backward extrapolation of the next vertical flight path segment. Thus, the type and position of the current and next vertical flight path segment symbols on the vertical deviation scale provide situational awareness of the present vertical flight path deviation and an indication of an efficient and timely manner for intercepting the desired flight path.

A device to assist in the piloting of an aircraft includes a display unit to present, in a display window of a screen, an information presentation illustrating a vertical plane along a flight path which represents a flight plan and which is formed so as to position the display window altitude-wise, and to further position a symbol illustrating the aircraft vertically in the display window, where the positioning of the display window and the symbol are based on the current flight phase, the current altitude and an altitude relative to the flight path.

The speed dependent variable display system for a computer-implemented moving-map vehicle display system includes a data conversion module for converting a vehicle speed input signal to a distance range value; and, an application module for utilizing the distance range value, vehicle position information, vehicle direction of movement information, and input geographical information to provide scaled output geographical information. The scaled output geographical information is utilized to provide a situational awareness display which is optimized in accordance with the vehicle's position, direction of movement and speed. A display apparatus receives the scaled output geographical information to provide an optimized situational awareness display for a moving-map vehicle display system.