Presentation of three methods results comparison for Vertical Navigation VNAV trajectory optimization for the Flight Management System FMS

摘要

One of the principal axes in the quest for improved aircraft operations, oriented towards attaining the future environmental and economic standards such as fuel consumption and air pollutant emission reduction is the development of flight trajectory optimization algorithms for the Flight Management System. This paper provides a comparative presentation of the algorithms developed and results obtained, at LARCASE, with the purpose of determining an optimized vertical flight trajectory for a given flight plan. The approach considered in the construction of the optimized vertical trajectory navigation plan (VNAV) was purely geometric. The optimization objectives were represented by the minimization of the number of vertical (climb, level-flight or descent) profile segments composing the VNAV trajectory, and the employment of climb and descent trajectories whose gradients are equal, or closest to a specified value which accounts for the aircraft's performances and flying conditions.