Environmental benefits in terms of fuel efficiency and noise when introducing continuous climb operations as part of terminal airspace operation

In this study, the environmental realities of enhancing departure aircraft procedures, based on optimal Continuous Climb Operations (CCOs), are discussed for a long-range wide-body aircraft. The findings are driven by the advantage offered by the analysis of real Flight Data Recorder (FDR) data against the simulated data, obtained through the use of orthogonal polynomials such as Chebyshev polynomials, in partnership with Gauss-type integration rules. Therein, the calculation of improved trajectories aims at reducing the negative environmental aspects of civil aviation on urbanized areas around airports and enhancing the operational cost efficiency. The multi-objective trajectory optimization has not only been applied to multiple environmental factors particularly; fuel consumption and noise impacts, but also has been constrained by Air Traffic Control (ATC) operational restrictions from a real scenario. The problem, tackled through a multi-objective optimization process based on CCO principles by a Chebyshev–Gauss–Lobatto (CGL) Pseudospectral Method, relies on a numerical framework that bears out the benefits in terms of fuel consumption and noise emissions. Therefore, this study promotes the need for investigating, not the implementation of a CCO generally assumed as an uninterrupted climb departure, but an optimal CCO.

Environmental benefits in terms of fuel efficiency and noise when introducing continuous climb operations as part of terminal airspace operation Articles