Generalized loxodromes with application to time-optimal navigation in arbitrary wind

This article aims at generalizing loxodromic (rhumb line) navigation to conformally flat Riemannian manifolds. We admit space-time dependence of both perturbing vector field and ship's self-speed. Thereafter, the findings are applied to time-efficient navigation by a variational approach, referring to the local solutions of Zermelo's navigation problem under arbitrary wind. This yields the corresponding conditions for loxodromic time-minimal and time-maximal navigation in relation to the navigation data. Our research is also illustrated by a two-dimensional example (an oblate ellipsoid), which distinguishes perturbations of different force: weak, critical and strong. It includes numerical simulations and discussion, emphasizing and comparing loxodromic solutions among the minimizing, maximizing and anomalous time extremals. (C) 2020 The Franklin Institute. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.