Aircraft Flight Control for Emissions and Penalty Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flight management systems do not account for emissions levels and associated costs, leading to potential penalties and inefficiencies in aircraft operations.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that includes a user interface, sensors, and a control unit to optimize flight paths, altitudes, and airspeeds to reduce emissions and costs by using a green flight index, with an AI or machine learning system to automatically adjust aircraft controls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If traditional flight management systems are used to optimize fuel consumption, then fuel efficiency is improved, but emissions costs and penalties are not accounted for
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors actual emissions using sensors and compares them against predicted emissions and regulatory thresholds. This feedback loop enables real-time adjustments to flight parameters (altitude, speed, thrust) to maintain compliance with emissions regulations while optimizing fuel consumption. The feedback mechanism ensures that fuel efficiency improvements do not result in excessive emissions that would incur penalties.
Solution Approach 2:
The flight management computer acts as an intermediary between the traditional fuel optimization systems and the new emissions management requirements. It integrates emissions predictions, regulatory thresholds, and flight parameters to calculate optimal flight paths that balance fuel efficiency with emissions compliance. This intermediary function allows the system to account for emissions costs without completely redesigning the fuel management system.
2Reliability
If emissions monitoring and control systems are added to aircraft, then emissions compliance is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flight management computer is designed to perform multiple functions: traditional flight path optimization, fuel consumption management, emissions prediction, emissions monitoring, and regulatory compliance verification. By making the FMC universal and multi-functional, the system achieves emissions compliance without adding separate dedicated systems, thereby minimizing the increase in device complexity while maintaining reliable emissions monitoring and control.
3Measurement precision
If real-time emissions monitoring is implemented, then emissions accuracy is improved, but measurement and detection difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flight management computer serves as an intermediary that receives data from multiple sensors (engine parameters, atmospheric conditions, flight phase information) and integrates this information to calculate predicted emissions. This intermediary processing simplifies the measurement task by combining multiple easier-to-measure parameters into a comprehensive emissions prediction, achieving accurate emissions measurement without requiring direct complex sensing of all emission components.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and a method include a user interface including a display and an input device. The input device is configured to be operated to provide parameters for a flight of an aircraft. A control unit is in communication with the user interface. The control unit is configured to receive the parameters from the user interface, and determine one or both of emissions of the aircraft during phases of the flight of the aircraft, or emissions costs for the flight of the aircraft.