Institute of

Flight System Dynamics

Flight Guidance I – Exercise 5

Task 1: Loxodrome and Orthodrome
Two flights shall be operated from Munich (MUC / EDDM), one to Los Angeles (LAX / KLAX),
the other to Sao Paulo (GRU / SBGR). The coordinates of the three airports are as follows:
Airport MUC / EDDM LAX / KLAX GRU / SBGR
𝜆 [°] 11.7850 -118.4032 -46.4781
𝜇 [°] 48.3552 33.9434 -23.4244

a) Determine the heading along the loxodrome for both flights. How long are the
distances in both cases? To calculate the distances, it can be assumed that the earth
is a sphere.

The loxodrome is defined as the connection line between two points that crosses all
longitudes with a constant angle. This is beneficial for navigation since the route can be flown
with a constant heading. The downside, however, is that the loxodrome is always longer
(except for north-south flight) than the shortest connection between two points (great circle /
orthodrome).

𝜇1 and 𝜆1 are the coordinates for the location of departure, 𝜇2 und 𝜆2 for the location of arrival.
The (constant) azimuth angle Ψ between departure and arrival is (assuming a sphere):

𝜆2 − 𝜆1
tan Ψ = 𝜋 𝜇 𝜋 𝜇
ln tan (4 + 22 ) − ln tan (4 + 21 )
𝜆2 − 𝜆1
Ψ = arctan 𝜋 𝜇 𝜋 𝜇
ln tan ( + 2 ) − ln tan ( + 1 )
4 2 4 2

The result for the two destinations is:

LAX GRU
Ψ 261.58° 216.36°

The arc length 𝑠 along a loxodrome on a sphere is:

𝑅
𝑠= (𝜇 − 𝜇1 )
cos Ψ 2

For the two destinations with 𝑅 = 6356766 m: 𝑠𝐿𝐴𝑋 > 𝑠𝐺𝑅𝑈

LAX GRU
𝑠 10921.02 km 9889.51 km

30.11.2021 Exercise 5 / Flight Guidance I Page 1 of 3

 Institute of
Flight System Dynamics

Flight Guidance I – Exercise 5

b) Determine the length of the orthodrome for both flights. For this task, also assume the
earth to be a sphere.

The radian 𝜎 between two points is:

cos 𝜎 = sin 𝜇1 sin 𝜇2 + cos 𝜇1 cos 𝜇2 cos(𝜆2 − 𝜆1 )

From that, the radial length can be calculated:

𝑠 = 𝑅𝜎

For the two destinations with 𝑅 = 6371 km: 𝑠𝐿𝐴𝑋 < 𝑠𝐺𝑅𝑈
LAX GRU
𝑠 9615.32 km 9872.35 km

c) How do you interpret the differences between the orthodromes and the loxodromes
for both flights?

The difference is much lower for the flight to GRU since Sao Paulo is south of the equator and
thus the loxodrome does not deviate much from the orthodrome. The change of heading for
LAX and GRU are as follows:

Figure 1: Heading Change

In Figure 1 it is evident that the change of heading for the flight MUC-LAX is much larger
compared to the flight MUC-GRU.

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 Institute of
Flight System Dynamics

Flight Guidance I – Exercise 5

This becomes even more evident for a flight between Munich and Anchorage (Alaska). The
coordinates for ANC are: 61.1744° N, 149.9964° W.
MUC – ANC
Ψ 97.90°
loxodrome 10367.64 km
orthodrome 7727.04 km

Figure 2: Google Earth

For flights that are only operated on the north or south half sphere, the difference between
the loxodrome and the orthodrome is much higher because the orthodrome takes course
close to the north pole. The loxodrome, in contrast, rather proceeds along the latitudes which
makes the distance considerably longer.

The routes for commercial aviation are generally based on the orthodromes. This can be seen
in Figure 3 for a flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. Furthermore, other factors like weather
have to be considered. The air traffic and also prohibited flight zones (like the Ukraine) play
an important role for long distance flights over shore.

Figure 3: FlightRadar24

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