New altitude optimisation algorithm for the flight management system CMA-9000 improvement on the A310 and L-1011 aircraft

Abstract

The current flight management system (FMS), CMA-9000, from CMC Electronics-Esterline, only optimises the vertical flight profile in terms of the speed of the aircraft. This article defines a methodology that optimises the speeds and altitudes for the vertical profile, obtaining a trajectory that reduces the global flight cost.The performance database (PDB) provided by CMC Electronics-Esterline is presently used on aircraft such as the Lockheed L-1011, the Airbus A310 and the Sukhoi Superjet 100 Russian regional jet. The PDB is used as the reference to design different trajectory optimisation algorithms to obtain the altitude where the aircraft fuel efficiency is the best. These algorithms are compared with the part-task trainer (PTT), simulator that represents the FMS CMA-9000, supplied by CMC Electronics-Esterline as well.To validate the results, the FlightSIM® software is used, which considers a complete aircraft aerodynamic model for its simulations, giving accurate results and very close to reality.

The disappearance of MH370 and the search operations — The role of technology and emerging research challenges

“…A lot of research has been reported on FMS [94]- [109], and the researchers in this domain need to identify the gaps that have emerged from this tragedy, in order to realize better FMS for the future, which could either eliminate or minimize the chances of manual manipulations. Moreover, by considering the speculation of deliberate diversion of the aircraft, means should have been available to combat such attempts.…”

3D Cruise Trajectory Optimization Inspired by a Shortest Path Algorithm

“…Using a numerical performance model with pre-defined sets of speeds and altitudes, an algorithm able to compute the optimal fixed cruise altitude and speed was developed in [26]. Felix-Patron implemented the golden section search algorithm to find, within a pre-defined set of altitudes, the optimal altitude that reduced the fuel consumption for short haul flights [27]. Dynamic programming was implemented by Hagelauer et al and Yoshikazu et al in order to find the most economical trajectory by changing the aircraft heading and altitude during the cruise phase while imposing time constraints [28,29].…”

“…Félix-Patron et al [34] used Genetic Algorithms to optimize the lateral trajectory. Algorithms [27][28][29] were developed using a numerical performance model. Murrieta and Botez [35] proposed an algorithm to compute the flight cost using such a model.…”