Aircraft Performance Parameters Research Articles

Urban Air Mobility Profitability and Operational Sensitivity to Battery and Charging Technology

Designs for electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft deviate from traditional aircraft designs and include a wide variety of different configurations. Significant uncertainty also exists regarding the status of future battery technology, including energy density and charge rates. This paper presents a simple analytic model to estimate the profitability of an urban air mobility electric VTOL aircraft for a variety of vehicle configurations, battery technology parameters, and economic factors. Five main elements are considered by the framework: aircraft performance, battery technology, mission profile, mission economics, and electrical grid parameters. A sensitivity analysis is provided, comparing the operational performance and profitability of three electric VTOL concepts (lift plus cruise, quadcopter, and side by side), with respect to electrical grid and battery technology factors. The takeoff weight to maximize the number of completed routes or the overall profitability is also examined. Interestingly, results show that these two values do not coincide across the entire design space due to the nonlinearity of the battery life cycle with respect to the depth of discharge, which strongly affects battery replacement cost.

A Performance-Based Parametric Design Exploration Tool for Student Aircraft Design Projects

In this study, a performance-based calculation tool was developed to ease the process of exploring different conceptual aircraft conditions. The study aims to minimize human errors when calculating aircraft performance parameters manually. The parametric design tool, which will aid in designing unmanned aircraft, was built using Microsoft Excel. It was developed for the purpose of saving time and excessive effort that hand calculations require. Based on the criteria mentioned in the SAE aero design competition, five conceptual designs for the unmanned aircraft were drafted. One of the main criteria of this competition is creating an aircraft with a high payload fraction and a low empty weight. Using this Excel spreadsheet, we computed the values of thrust force, lift coefficient, drag coefficient, dynamic pressure, and drag force acting on the unmanned aircraft, allowing us to analyze and compare the performances of the different conceptual designs. To make sure that the Excel spreadsheet was reliable, it was tested and verified by comparing it with hand calculations.

Detailed Analysis of Aircraft Fuel Flow Using Data from Flight Data Recorder

This paper aims to perform accurate prediction of fuel flow (FF) by employing various models: deep learning (DL), random forest (RF), generalized linear model (GLM), and the Eurocontrol Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) model, and to examine the link between FF and different aircraft performance parameters. The flight data set used in this study is obtained from real turbofan engine narrow-body aircraft performing short-distance domestic subsonic flights, containing a total of 2,674 cruise flights between 31 city pairs. Several statistical error analyses are conducted to compare the performance of the models. Root mean square error, mean absolute error, and mean squared error values for DL are calculated to be 0.01, 0.008, and 0.0001, respectively. On the coefficient of determination ( [Formula: see text]) test for validation, the DL model has the highest value of 0.94. Results of the analysis in this paper show that the DL model offers the best ability to predict FF in all statistical tests, which makes it the best-suited model to estimate FF. These findings can provide the means to make more efficient trajectory planning and forecasts in air traffic management, and more accurately predict fuel consumption of aircraft, thereby decreasing emission levels of carbon gases and of various pollutants and airline operating expenses from fuel costs.

Conceptual Design and Control Schedule Optimization for Parallel Hybrid Propulsion System of Regional Turboprop Aircraft

Current environmental policies for the aviation industry motivate the use of cleaner propulsion systems to reduce its CO2 and noise footprint in the coming years. In this context, hybrid propulsion systems have emerged as a potential solution as they have demonstrated a good trade-off between performance and low pollutant emissions. In the present work, the conceptual design and control schedule optimisation of a parallel hybrid propulsion system for the De Havilland Dash 8 regional turboprop aircraft is carried out. A parametric study of the turboprop engine with different degrees of hybridisation at design point and off-design performance analysis of the parallel hybrid propulsion system with different control schedules for an aircraft typical mission has been carried out. Overall aircraft performance parameters are used to evaluate hybrid propulsion systems with different degrees of hybridisation and control schedules. From the results, it was found that a control schedule with 10-15% hybridisation during the cruise phase is the most promising when considering the aircraft mission blocked fuel and fuel efficiency.

Modeling of aircraft performance parameters with metaheuristic methods to achieve specific excess power contours using energy maneuverability method

The energy method, which deals with the total energy of the aircraft (sum of potential energy and kinetic energy), is frequently used in the climb analysis of high performance aircraft. Within the scope of this study, by using this energy approach; a new method is presented to obtain specific excess power contours (Ps), which show the performance limits of the aircraft, present the altitude and speed combinations at which they can fly at different specific excess powers, and help determine the trajectory corresponding to the minimum time to climb without the need for any mathematical operation. In the method presented for the B737-800 aircraft; aircraft performance model consisting of aerodynamic model, thrust, and fuel flow rate models was created and Ps contours implementing the energy maneuverability method were obtained by using this model. The data used in the study are real thrust and flight data record (FDR) data. For the models, the cuckoo search algorithm (CSA) method, which is relatively new but has proven itself in many challenging optimization problems, is used. Particle swarm optimization (PSO), a different metaheuristic method, was used to validate CSA models. In all of the optimization processes made using the Matlab program, very accurate results were accomplished with both metaheuristic methods.

Enhanced cruise range prediction for narrow-body turbofan commercial aircraft based on QAR data

ABSTRACTAircraft performance parameters play a critical role in maintaining economic and environmental sustainability in aviation. Furthermore, the ability to calculate aircraft performance parameters accurately for the cruise range contributes to aviation in areas such as the preliminary design of aircraft and air traffic management. This study is focused on cruise range performance, as this is critical to both the evaluation and understanding of the economic and environmental impacts of commercial aircraft. Quick Access Recorders (QAR) data were used for more accurate analysis of the cruise range. The QAR data used in this study included 6,574 short-distance domestic flights by narrow-body turbofan commercial aircraft between 31 different city pairs. To obtain a more accurate cruise range equation, parameters affecting the cruise range performance were determined and studied. First, the drag polar model was improved to take the cambered profile, compressibility effects and cruise airspeeds of commercial aircraft into consideration using the real flight data. Second, Thrust-Specific Fuel Consumption (TSFC) models were compared and the most suitable one for the cruise phase was selected. After these steps, cruise range values were calculated using the Breguet range equation with these improved parameters. When the results of this enhanced range model were compared with the real flight data, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was found to be 2.5% for all the Aircraft and Engine Type Groups (AETGs) considered in the data. This figure corresponds to a 7.9% smaller error than provided by previous range models based on simple parabolic drag polar and TSFC models. According to these results, the application of a simple parabolic drag polar and TSFC is not appropriate for cruise range calculations.

Simulation of Runway Operations with Application of Dynamic Wake Separations to Study Runway Limitations

This paper presents an evaluation of runway operations at Chicago O’Hare International Airport to estimate the impact of proposed wake vortex separation including Recategorization Phase II and III dynamic separations. The evaluation uses a Monte Carlo simulation model that considers arrival and departure operations. The simulation accounts for static and dynamic wake vortex separations, aircraft fleet mix, runway occupancy times, aircraft approach speeds, aircraft wake circulation capacity, environmental conditions, and operational error buffers. Airport data considered for this analysis are based on Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X records from Chicago O’Hare International Airport from January to November 2016. Dynamic wake separations are tailored to each unique set of conditions by using environmental and aircraft performance parameters as input and allowing aircraft to be exposed to the same wake vortex strength as in Recategorization Phase II (RECAT II). The analysis shows that further reductions beyond RECAT II for aircraft pairs separated by 2 nautical miles or less is not operationally feasible. These wake separations already result in little to no wake dependency. When this is the case, the challenges in wake separation are to meet runway occupancy times and to make sure aircraft separations allow for human operational variations without resulting in aircraft turnarounds or double-aircraft-occupancy runway violations.

Optimization of Aircraft Climb Trajectory considering Environmental Impact under RTA Constraints

In order to realize the concept of air traffic sustainable operation, taking the aircraft climbing stage as an example, firstly, we establish the vertical trajectory model of aircraft climbing, analyze the change rule of aircraft performance parameters under different indicated airspeed, and establish the RTA and RHA constraint models according to the waypoint constraints. Then, considering the fuel economy and the greenhouse effect of pollutant emission, we establish a multiobjective model of aircraft flight parameter optimization, and, based on the multiobjective genetic algorithm, we establish an optimization model. Finally, we use B737-800 aircraft to carry out simulation experiments and find that, with the change of speed, fuel consumption and warming trend are different, and “objective weight, aircraft mass, flight distance, RTA time window, and wind” have different effects on the optimization results. The results show that this optimization method has a good compromise between fuel consumption and greenhouse effect by changing the weighting factor. By optimizing the flight parameters of the aircraft, it can effectively reduce the impact on the environment and provide theoretical support for the green flight of the aircraft.

An estimation method for the fuel burn and other performance characteristics of civil transport aircraft in the cruise. Part 1 fundamental quantities and governing relations for a general atmosphere

AbstractThis paper is one of a series addressing the need for simple, yet accurate, methods for the estimation of cruise fuel burn and other important aircraft performance parameters. Here, a previously published, constant Reynolds number model for turbofan-powered, civil transport aircraft is extended to include Reynolds number effects. Provided the variation of temperature with pressure is known, the method is applicable to flight in any atmospheric conditions. For a given aircraft, cruising in a given atmosphere, there is a single Mach number and Flight Level pair, at which the fuel burn per unit distance travelled through the air has an absolute minimum value. Both these quantities depend upon the Reynolds number, which, in turn, depends upon the aircraft weight and the atmospheric vertical temperature profile. Simple, explicit expressions are developed for all parameters at the optimum condition. These are shown to be in close agreement with numerical solutions of the governing equations. It is found that typical operational mass and temperature profile variations can change cruise fuel burn rate by several percent. In the International Standard Atmosphere, when the speed and altitude deviate from their optimum values, the fuel burn penalty is reduced slightly relative to the constant Reynolds number case. By way of example, the method is used to estimate the minimum fuel, speed-versus-height trajectory for cruise in a realistic atmosphere.For each aircraft, cruise fuel burn is found to be governed by six independent parameters. All are constants. Two are simple, involving only size and weight, whereas four are complex and must be determined by either theoretical, or empirical, means. The estimation of these quantities will be considered in Part 2.

Aircraft Noise Modeling of Departure Flights based on Flight Track Data and Actual Aircraft Performance Parameters

Abstract The improvement of existing and the development of new operational noise abatement departure procedures (NADP) requires precise knowledge of the current aircraft noise situation in the vicinity of an airport. While the current noise situation is recorded using aircraft noise measurements, the estimation of future aircraft noise in the vicinity of airports must be calculated using suitable modeling methods (e. g. ECAC Doc 29). So far, the methods for estimating aircraft noise have been based on generic departure profiles and assumptions about flight operations procedures that do not match the real departure profiles, flight performance statuses and operational flight operations procedures sufficiently. In this article a method is presented that enables the calculation of aircraft noise contours of real departures using the aircraft noise modeling software Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). The exact calculation of aircraft noise contours from departures is based on a data set of flight history data (radar data), including the detailed estimation of aircraft performance parameters (including aircraft mass and engine thrust) and flight operations procedures (cutback and acceleration heights, flap schedule) along the departure trajectory. Then the data set is implemented in the modeling software and the calculated noise metrics (LA,MAX) are validated with real aircraft noise measurements of the corresponding flights.

Flight performance monitoring with optimal filtering applications

ABSTRACTThis work presents an alternative methodology for monitoring flight performance during airline operations using the available inboard instrumentation system. This method tries to reduce the disadvantages of the traditional specific range monitoring technique where instrumentation noise and cruise stabilisation conditions affect the quality of the performance monitoring results. The proposed method consists of using an unscented Kalman filter for aircraft performance identification using Newton’s flight dynamic equations in the body X, Y and Z axis. The use of the filtering technique reduces the effect of instrumentation and process noise, enhancing the reliability of the performance results. Besides the better quality of the monitoring process, using the proposed technique, additional results that are not possible to predict with the specific range method are identified during the filtering process. An example of these possible filtered results that show the advantages of this proposed methodology are the aircraft fuel flow offsets, as predicted in the specific range method, but also other important aircraft performance parameters as the aircraft lift and drag coefficients (CL and CD), sideslip angle (β) and wind speeds, giving the operator a deeper understanding of its aircraft operational status and the possibility to link the operational monitoring results to aircraft maintenance scheduling. This work brings a cruise stabilisation example where the selected performance monitoring parameters such as fuel flow factors, lift and drag bias, winds and sideslip angle are identified using only the inboard instrumentation such as the GPS/inertial sensors, a calibrated anemometric system and the angle-of-attack vanes relating each flight condition to a specific aircraft performance monitoring result. The results show that the proposed method captures the performance parameters by the use of the Kalman filter without the need of a strict stabilisation phase as it is recommended in the traditional specific range method, giving operators better flexibility when analysing and monitoring fleet performance.

WRAP: An open-source kinematic aircraft performance model

Open access to flight data from Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) has provided researchers with more insights for air traffic management than aircraft tracking alone. With large quantities of trajectory data collected from a wide range of different aircraft types, it is possible to extract accurate aircraft performance parameters. In this paper, a set of more than thirty parameters from seven distinct flight phases are extracted for common commercial aircraft types. It uses various data mining methods, as well as a maximum likelihood estimation approach to generate parametric models for these performance parameters. All parametric models combined can be used to describe a complete flight that includes takeoff, initial climb, climb, cruise, descent, final approach, and landing. Both analytical results and summaries are shown. When available, optimal parameters from these models are also compared with the Base of Aircraft Data and the Eurocontrol aircraft performance database. This research presents a comprehensive set of methods for extracting different aircraft performance parameters. It also provides the first set of open parametric performance data for common aircraft types. All model data are published as open data under a flexible open-source license.

Digitalization of aircraft performance nomograms

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a new tool for aircraft performance analysis and optimization.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the methodology of converting nomogram curves into mathematical functions is presented. Aircraft performance nomograms represent graphical interpretation of influence of several variables on performance such as environmental conditions, runway conditions and aircraft mass. The aircraft performance nomograms are converted in mathematical functions that describe several independent variables’ influence on aircraft performance parameters. To achieve greater accuracy in calculation of aircraft performance parameters, it is necessary to determine mathematical functions presented by dependent variable variations with several independent variables. The method of determining mathematical functions is illustrated on Fokker 100 landing gear extended net climb gradient determination graph.FindingsTo evaluate model, it was necessary to determine net climb gradient both graphically and analytically using model and compare the results. After solving both analytically and graphically, it was concluded that results are a match. During model evaluation, it was observed that model has a lot of advantages such as it has great precision of calculation, requires less time to calculate results and has minimum error possibility.Practical implicationsFinal result of digitalization of aircraft performance nomograms is software production. The usage of this software can reduce flight planning and aircraft exploitation costs in several different manners. Airliners can produce such a software for those types of aircraft where there is no software provided from aircraft manufacturer.Originality/valueDigitalization of aircraft performance nomogram has never been analyzed before, although there is a possibility of this particular methodology implementation in a practical manner in aviation industry.

An algorithm for trajectory prediction of flight plan based on relative motion between positions

Traditional methods for plan path prediction have low accuracy and stability. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for plan path prediction based on relative motion between positions (RMBP) by mining historical flight trajectories. A probability statistical model is introduced to model the stochastic factors during the whole flight process. The model object is the sequence of velocity vectors in the three-dimensional Earth space. First, we model the moving trend of aircraft including the speed (constant, acceleration, or deceleration), yaw (left, right, or straight), and pitch (climb, descent, or cruise) using a hidden Markov model (HMM) under the restrictions of aircraft performance parameters. Then, several Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) are used to describe the conditional distribution of each moving trend. Once the models are built, machine learning algorithms are applied to obtain the optimal parameters of the model from the historical training data. After completing the learning process, the velocity vector sequence of the flight is predicted by the proposed model under the Bayesian framework, so that we can use kinematic equations, depending on the moving patterns, to calculate the flight position at every radar acquisition cycle. To obtain higher prediction accuracy, a uniform interpolation method is used to correct the predicted position each second. Finally, a plan trajectory is concatenated by the predicted discrete points. Results of simulations with collected data demonstrate that this approach not only fulfils the goals of traditional methods, such as the prediction of fly-over time and altitude of waypoints along the planned route, but also can be used to plan a complete path for an aircraft with high accuracy. Experiments are conducted to demonstrate the superiority of this approach to some existing methods.

Design space exploration in aircraft conceptual design phase based on system-of-systems simulation

Design space exploration has been much neglected in aircraft conceptual design phase, which often leads to a waste of time and cost in design, manufacture and operation process. It is necessary to explore design space based on operational systemof-systems (SoS) simulation during the early phase for a competitive design. This paper proposes a methodology to analyze aircraft performance parameters in four steps: combination of parameters, object analysis, operational simulation, and keyparameters analysis. Meanwhile, the design space of an unmanned aerial vehicle applied in earthquake search and rescue SoS is explored based on this methodology. The results show that applying SoS simulation into design phase has important reference value for designers on aircraft conceptual design.

Optimal Cruise Altitude for Aircraft Thermal Management

Mission-planning algorithms and trajectory optimization methods for aircraft that use fuel as a heat sink must ensure that fuel temperature limits are not violated at any point in a flight. The problem of determining the cruise altitude that minimizes final fuel tank temperature for jet aircraft that use recirculating fuel to remove waste thermal energy from the aircraft is considered. A heat exchanger transfers energy from the aircraft subsystems to the fuel. A portion of the fuel is burned in a turbojet engine, whereas the remaining unburned fuel is passed through a cooler that transfers some heat from the fuel to the atmosphere. A differential equation that describes the time rate of change of fuel tank temperature is derived based on the principles of conservation of mass and energy. Specific conditions are derived for the cruise altitude that minimizes final tank temperature for flight conditions associated with maximum endurance and range. Expressions are also derived that provide estimates of time and range to a temperature limit. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the utility of the conditions and to assess the impact of the assumptions made in the derivation of the analytic models. The conditions also provide a relationship between aircraft performance parameters, the standard atmosphere, and the heat transfer characteristics of the fuel recirculation loop.

Flight Test Results of a Measurement-Based ADS-B System for Separation Assurance

ABSTRACT: Future Aircraft Surveillance Applications (ASA) systems for situational awareness applications (e.g.,conflict detection and resolution, final approach and runway occupancy awareness, and airport surface situationalawareness methods), airborne spacing applications, airborne separation applications, and self-separationapplications will benefit from the introduction of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). Analternative ADS-B implementation, which transmits measurements from the Global Navigation SatelliteSystem (GNSS) instead of aircraft state vectors and performance parameters in the current implementation, hasbeen proposed previously to improve surveillance performance. This paper summarizes the proposedmethodology, discusses its threat models and integrity aspects, and presents the initial flight test results of thisalternative ADS-B implementation, along with a performance analysis. Copyright # 2013 Institute of Navigation INTRODUCTIONTo meet the expanding demand of air traffic in theNational Airspace System (NAS), an increase incapacity will be required. Efforts to achieve thischange in capacity are directed and overseen bythe Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO)formed by the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA), the National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA), and several othergovernment agencies. The resulting improved airtransportation system is referred to as the NextGeneration Air Transportation System or NextGen.When completed NextGen is supposed to “providethe capacity required to meet the nation’sneedinthemost effective, efficient, safe, and secure mannerpossible” [1, 2]. Meanwhile, Europe has been workingon an equivalent transformation of European airspace through the Single European Sky Air TrafficManagement (ATM) Research (SESAR) [3].The goals of NextGen are to significantly increasethe safety, security, capacity, efficiency, andenvironment compatibility of aviation operations inthe NAS. In order to achieve increased capacityand efficiency in an even more congested NAS, manydecisions in NextGen will be made at a local levelwith an awareness of system-wide implications.Intermsofsurveillance,NextGenenvisionsdelegatedseparation, which transfers certain responsibilityfor separation from ATM to flight crews to ensurethat the applicable airborne separation minimaare met. In particular, two of the eight identi fiedkey capabilities of NextGen, Performance-BasedOperations and Services (PBO) and Aircraft Trajectory-Based Operations (TBO), will help facilitate aircraftusingtheir4-Dflightprofilesandperformance-relatedparameters to enable reduced separation andincreased trajectory predictability [1].The Aircraft Surveillance Applications (ASA)systems are expected to provide the abovementionedimproved situational awareness. As the surveillanceand application-specific component of the ASAsystems, Airborne Surveillance and SeparationAssurance Processing (ASSAP) is intended tointegrate information from all the NextGenCommunication, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS)systems to perform surveillance applicationssuch as enhanced visual acquisition, conflictdetection and resolution, airport surface situationalawareness, final approach and runway occupancyawareness, and enhanced visual approach, and topresent trafficstateinformationtoflight crewsthrough a Cockpit Display of TrafficInformation(CDTI) atleastseveralminutesaheadofapredictedloss of separation [4, 5].

A Simplified Method of Simulation for Aircraft Performance Parameters in Air Traffic Control

In order to simplify the traditional methods for simulating aircraft performance in ATC, a method is proposed in this paper by the flight aerodynamics theories, normal and maximal climb rate in steady climb motion and acceleration/deceleration of Straight-and-Level Flight of performance computation. This method can be used to simulate acceleration, deceleration, and climb/descent rate of usual civil aircraft types. It is convenient and useable compared with the traditional complex methods which need input many parameters manually in air traffic control (ATC) simulation. The experimental result listed in this paper coincides with the basic flying rules of aircraft types such as 737-300, A310-300, B747F, Y-7. The application of this method in the real ATC simulator for controller training proved its function and effect.

Inverse Design of Adaptive Airfoils with Aircraft Performance Considerations

Recent advances in the development of inverse airfoil design methods now allow for the incorporation of aircraft performance considerations in the design of a non-flapped airfoil. While these improvements make airfoil-aircraft matching considerably easier, there is a need for a similar capability for adaptive airfoils. This paper presents a design formulation that incorporates aircraft performance considerations in the inverse design of low-speed laminar-flow adaptive airfoils. The benefit of using adaptive airfoils is that the size of the low-drag region of the drag polar can be effectively increased without increasing the thickness of the airfoil. Two aircraft performance parameters are considered: level-flight maximum speed and maximum range. It is shown that the lift coefficient for the lower and upper corners of the airfoil low-drag range can be appropriately adjusted to tailor the airfoil for these two aircraft performance parameters. The design problem is posed as a part of a multidimensional Newton iteration in an existing conformal-mapping based inverse design code, PROFOIL. This formulation automatically adjusts the lift coefficients for the corners of the low-drag range for a given flap deflection as required for the airfoil-aircraft matching. Examples are presented to illustrate the benefits of the process for a general aviation aircraft and the results are validated by comparison with results from post-design aircraft performance computations.

Incorporation of Aircraft Performance Considerations in Inverse Airfoil Design

Although significant advances have been made in inverse airfoil design methodology, the tailoring of an airfoil to maximize one or more aircraft performance parameters still involves cycling between airfoil design and aircraft performance computations. A design formulation is presented that incorporates aircraft performance considerations in the inverse design of low-speed laminar-flow airfoils for piston engine driven propeller-powered airplanes. Two aircraft performance parameters are considered: level-flight maximum speed and maximum range. It is shown that the lift coefficient for the lower and upper corners of the airfoil low-drag range can be appropriately adjusted to tailor the airfoil for these two aircraft performance parameters. The design problem is posed as a part of a multidimensional Newton iteration in an existing conformal-mapping based inverse design code, PROFOIL. This formulation automatically adjusts the lift coefficients for the corners of the low-drag range as required for the airfoil‐aircraft matching. The design formulation also has the capability to handle a constraint on the stall speed by automatically adjusting the wing area to account for changes to the airfoil maximum lift coefficient. Two examples are presented to illustrate the process for a general aviation aircraft, and the results are validated by comparison with results from postdesign aircraft performance computations. Nomenclature A R= wing aspect ratio b = wing span C D = aircraft or wing drag coefficient based on Sw Cd = airfoil drag coefficient based on chord CL = aircraft or wing lift coefficient based on Sw Cl = airfoil lift coefficient based on chord