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Algorithms for Automatic Elaboration of Optimized Trajectories for Continuous Descent Operations

Angela Errico*, Vittorio Di Vito, Claudio Parente, Giovanni Petruzzi

To reduce the effects of aircraft noise, fuel use and related pollutant atmospheric emissions, due to conventional step-down procedures for approach and landing, designed curved and continuous descent approach trajectories can be adopted in order to provide suitably optimized vertical profiles by combining flexible lateral paths and continuous descent operations such that level flight segments can be completely eliminated. This paper describes a methodology for the automatic generation of efficient Curved and Continuous Descent Approach (CCDA) trajectories to reduce the aircraft fuel consumption during the approach phase. Furthermore, the proposed method takes into account the airport and external environmental constraints by providing the obstacles mapping from aeronautical charts georeferencing processes and suitable DSMs and DTMs. This allows to automatically generate a modified set of trajectories that optimizes the track distance within a tolerable range. The Italian Aerospace Research Center (CIRA) has developed this study within the framework of the Efficient Air Transport System (EATS) project. The identification of all influencing factors in TMA has been here provided for a specified airport and related Aerodrome Traffic Zone and Control Zones in collaboration with the University of the Study of Naples “Parthenope”. Applications and simulations results of the proposed methodology have been reported and discussed.