Global Navigation: Moving-Map Navigator Applet

A demonstrator in principle of a flight guidance system whose function is to steer an aircraft from an origin to a destination via a route, where a route is defined as a set of way points joined by 'great circle' arcs using an ellipsoidal model of the earth. [Versão Portuguêsa]

To run this program, you need Java installed on your computer. Create a new folder in a convenient place. Download the file movmap.jar. Move it to your new folder. Unzip the jar file. [A 'jar' file is merely a 'zip' file with a '.jar' extension.] Open a terminal. Change directory to your new folder.

Enter the command: "java navstart".

The addition of the trace switch, "java navstart -trace" causes the program to send a trace of the flight parameters to "std out". This may be redirected to a text file: "java navstart -trace > output.txt".

Mainstream warnings notwithstanding, this program will neither blow up your computer nor wreak any other kind of fanciful mischief. It simply draws a map and writes data on your screen. In the good old days this program simply ran embedded within the web page where its static image is now displayed. The embedded applet still runs in pre-2017 versions of browsers with Java 1.6 installed and the Web Start version still runs in pre-2019 versions of browsers with Java 1.8 installed. To read the rancid history of this sad retrogression in Web functionality, please click here.

You may also download, compile and run the original version of this Global Navigator written in 'C'.