Optimal turn-back manoeuvre after engine failure in a single-engine aircraft during climb-out

Abstract

When a single-engine aircraft suffers an engine failure shortly after take-off, the pilot is forced to execute a power-off glide to a landing. If the engine failure occurs at a low altitude, there is no choice but to land straight ahead. However, when the engine failure occurs at a higher altitude, the possibility arises to turn the aircraft back to the runway. The latter option has the potential to improve survivability, in particular, when the surrounding terrain turns out to be inhospitable. The goal of the present study is to establish under what conditions returning to the runway is a feasible and safe option. To this end, the turn-back landing problem is formulated as an optimal control problem and solved numerically using the direct optimization technique of collocation and non-linear programming. The aircraft model employed in the numerical examples concerns an F-16 fighter aircraft, modelled as a point mass. The influence of wind on the optimal turn-back manoeuvre is also discussed.