Patent 8112224 was granted and assigned to Airbus on February, 2012 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The guidance system (1) comprises a first means (2) for guiding the aircraft while maintaining a spacing with another aircraft, a second means (3) for making the aircraft pass through a particular waypoint at a required passing time, and means (5) for selecting automatically one of said first and second means (2, 3).