Now that we’ve all gotten accustomed to acronyms like Rnav, RNP, LPV and all the others, the next big game changer will be TBO, for trajectory-based operations, sometimes loosely thought of as user-preferred trajectories. Oddly enough, trajectory flying was the fundamental technique used way back by pilots flying the mail in their biplanes and in early passenger operations. Load up, start up, taxi out, take off, climb, cruise and descend along the most direct route at the preferred speed and altitude, and then land and taxi in, all with minimum or no delay.
But then someone invented the low-frequency A/N radio range tied to things called airways and, old timers undoubtedly felt, it was downhill from then on. There’s a grain of truth in that. Flights between major centers in the 1920s that took, say, two hours at an average of 110 knots can now take around the same time at an average of 400 knots, and still have a hard time meeting the schedule.
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