Air Traffic Schedule Management via Early-Descent Trajectory Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current air traffic management systems rely on clearance-based control, which does not consider preferred aircraft trajectories, leading to inefficiencies in fuel consumption and cost, as they primarily focus on safety and separation, lacking the capability to compute cost-effective trajectory changes that include early-descent maneuvers to absorb delays.
Innovation Solution
A schedule management system that uses on-aircraft flight management systems to determine flight-specific cost data and transmit it to a ground-based decision support tool, which computes and recommends alternative trajectories, including early-descent options, to air traffic controllers for managing time delays and optimizing air traffic flow.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If clearance-based control systems are used to manage air traffic, then safety and separation between aircraft are maintained, but fuel consumption increases and operational costs rise due to inability to optimize trajectories
Solution Approach 1:
A ground-based decision support tool acts as an intermediary between air traffic controllers and aircraft, computing cost-effective trajectory changes including early-descent maneuvers while maintaining safety constraints. This intermediary system processes flight-specific cost data and trajectory information to generate optimized descent paths that reduce fuel consumption without compromising safety and separation requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes trajectory parameters by computing alternative descent paths with different altitude profiles, speed adjustments, and timing parameters. By varying these parameters through the decision support tool, the system generates optimized trajectories that reduce fuel consumption while maintaining the safety and separation standards required by clearance-based control.
2Loss of time
If traditional speed changes and lateral flight path alterations are used to absorb time delays, then air traffic schedule management is achieved, but fuel consumption increases compared to early-descent maneuvers
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary computation of early-descent maneuvers before they are executed by the aircraft. The ground-based decision support tool calculates optimized descent paths in advance, considering flight-specific cost data and current air traffic conditions, enabling aircraft to absorb time delays more efficiently by descending earlier along a pre-computed optimal path rather than making reactive speed or lateral changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the vertical trajectory parameter by implementing early-descent maneuvers that alter the altitude profile of the flight path. This parameter change allows aircraft to absorb time delays by adjusting descent timing and rate rather than through traditional speed changes or lateral flight path alterations, resulting in reduced fuel consumption while achieving the same time delay absorption objective.
3Productivity
If ground-based systems compute trajectory optimizations using flight-specific cost data, then cost-effective trajectory changes are achieved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ground-based decision support tool serves as an intermediary that centralizes the complex computational tasks of trajectory optimization. By locating the computation system on the ground rather than on individual aircraft, the system manages complexity through centralized processing of flight-specific cost data and trajectory information, enabling cost-effective trajectory changes without requiring complex systems on each aircraft.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces manual trajectory computation and decision-making with automated ground-based computational systems. The decision support tool automatically processes flight-specific cost data, evaluates multiple trajectory options, and generates optimized descent paths, substituting human mechanical processes with automated computational mechanisms that handle the complexity of cost-effective trajectory optimization.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method to improve efficiency in aircraft maneuvers meant to accommodate time-related constraints in air traffic, information related to flight performance and atmospheric conditions is gathered onboard an aircraft, then transmitted to an air traffic control center, in the event of a delay or any other event which necessitates an alteration in an aircraft trajectory, the data is sent to a decision support tool to compute and provide alternative trajectories, preferably including operator- preferred trajectories, within air traffic constraints. Air traffic controllers can then offer an alternative trajectory to an aircraft that is more efficient, cost effective, and/or preferable to the aircraft operator.