DESIGN OF A FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO SUPPORT FOUR-DIMENSIONAL TRAJECTORIES

Manuel Angel Amaro Carmona,Cristina Barrado,Darius Rudinskas

doi:10.3846/16487788.2015.1015284

Manuel Angel Amaro Carmona, Cristina Barrado + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3846/16487788.2015.1015284

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Abstract

This paper presents the design and simulation of the functions of a flight Management System (FMS) in order to follow four-dimensional trajectories automatically. This is achieved by controlling the aircraft’s airspeed, altitude, heading and vertical speed in order to arrive to the merging point in a specified time. The system receives data from the aircraft and computes new control parameters based on mathematical equations and algorithms of prediction trajectories. Additional features have been added to the FMS-4D, such as the capability of predicting the arrival time taking into account previous flight parameters and speed/altitude constrains. Finally, a testing phase was carried out using a flight simulator in order to obtain the performance and results of the designed system.

Highlights

Procedures and tasks related to air traffic management have been improved several years ago in order to increase the safety and reliability of air traffic
The heading control of the Flight Management System (FMS)-4D allows the aircraft to pass through all the Flight Plan waypoints with an acceptable low error
In order to provide a possible solution to the problems faced by aircraft when following a four-dimensional trajectory, a software-based Flight Managed System (FMS) that performs the control of the flight in order to achieve three dimensional waypoints in the required arrival time estimated has been designed

Summary

Introduction

Procedures and tasks related to air traffic management have been improved several years ago in order to increase the safety and reliability of air traffic. The concept of four dimension airspace management has become more prominent in the recent years due to work performed by international organizations with the objective of taking the airspace into a new dimension of performance and reliability. According to Eurocontrol, the most-likely scenario C (Regulated Growth) has predicted up to 14.4 million flights in 2035. This is equivalent to 50% more than in 2012 and has a growth average of 1.8% per year. This forecast alerts international organizations to the need to implement important improvements in airspace management. A possible direction for improving air traffic transportation is the concept of 4D navigation (20-year... 2013)

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