This SAE Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) sets forth design and operational recommendations concerning the human factors/crew interface considerations and criteria for vertical situation awareness displays. This is the first of two recommended practice documents that will address vertical situation awareness displays (VSAD). This document will focus on the performance/planning types of display (e.g., the map display) and will be limited to providing recommendations concerning human factored crew interfaces and will not address architecture issues. This document focuses on two types of VSAD displays: a coplanar implementation of a profile display (side projection) and a conventional horizontal map display; and a 3D map display (geometric projection). It is intended for head down display applications. However, other formats or presentation methods, such as HUDs, HMDs and 3D audio presentations may become more feasible in the future.