Systems and methods for presenting and obtaining flight control information

An aircraft system for presenting aircraft flight information on-board an aircraft, comprising:

• a computer having instructions having contents that perform a method that includes:
• displaying at a first display location first information identifying a lateral motion of the aircraft, the first information including a current lateral mode under which the aircraft is currently operating and a current lateral target to which the aircraft is currently being directed;
• displaying at a second display location second information identifying a vertical motion of the aircraft, the second information including a current vertical mode under which the aircraft is currently operating and a current vertical target to which the aircraft is currently being directed;
• and
• displaying at a third display location third information identifying a speed of the aircraft, the third information including a current airspeed target to which the aircraft is currently being directed, the second display location being positioned proximate to and between the first and third display locations;
• a display operatively coupled to the computer to display the first, second and third information at said first, second, and third display location, respectively;
• input devices, including first, second and third input devices positioned proximate to the display, wherein the first input device receives operator inputs corresponding to the lateral motion of the aircraft, the second input device receives operator inputs corresponding to the vertical motion of the aircraft, and the third input device receives operator inputs corresponding to the speed of the aircraft, and wherein the second input device is positioned between the first and third input devices, wherein the instructions of the computer are configured to (a) display a subsequent lateral target to which the aircraft will be directed after attaining the current lateral target simultaneously with displaying the current lateral mode and current lateral target, and (b) display a subsequent vertical target to which the aircraft will be directed after attaining the current vertical target simultaneously with displaying the current vertical mode and current vertical target, and (c) display a subsequent airspeed target to which the aircraft will be directed after attaining the current airspeed target simultaneously with displaying the current airspeed target, wherein displaying the modes includes displaying textual indicators of the modes, and wherein individual modes correspond to one of several available predefined flight control directives or sets of directives for controlling the aircraft, and wherein displaying the first, second and third information includes displaying subsequent target information in place of current target information when a flight segment to the current target is complete.