Report
Preliminary Development and Flight Trials of a Cruise Altitude and Speed Optimization Decision Support Tool
09/2018
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/120599
Appears in Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT)
Abstract
A cruise altitude and speed optimization decision support tool, based on the concept of a minimum cost altitude tunnel, was developed to aid ight crew and dispatcher situational awareness and decision-making in vertical trajectory planning in order to reduce fuel and time costs. As the optimal altitude for an aircraft changes with speed, weight, outside air temperature, and winds, ight crew decision-making can benet from the calculation and display of the relative ight costs of possible trajectories. The concept of a minimum cost tunnel is introduced, and the decision support tool is presented. Four preliminary ight trials were conducted with a Boeing 777-200 and prototype decision support tool. The preliminary ight trials suggest that the decision support tool is useful and improves situational awareness and coordination between dispatcher and ight crew. The initial ight trials also indicated that ight crews would benet from higher quality turbulence information, including synchronization of the turbulence information available to ight crews and dispatchers. The largest fuel savings observed for a ight from the preliminary ight trials was over 3800 lbs. Additionally, the ight trials suggest that the minimum cost tunnel would even be useful as a static image included as part of the ight plan to provide situational awareness and facilitate coordination with dispatchers.
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Details
- Title
- Preliminary Development and Flight Trials of a Cruise Altitude and Speed Optimization Decision Support Tool
- Creators
- Clement Li (Author)R. John Hansman (Author)
- Academic Unit
- Aviation Operations; Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT)
- Grants
- 13-C-AJFE-MIT, Federal Aviation Administration (United States, Washington) - FAA
- Identifiers
- 99900620481701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Report