New methods of optimization of the flight profiles for performance database-modeled aircraft

Abstract

Researchers have been attempting to reduce aircraft fuel consumption for decades to minimize aviation’s emissions to the atmosphere. This article presents an algorithm which improves the trajectories created by a commercial flight management system. A complete analysis of the climb, cruise, and descent was performed and a genetic algorithm has been implemented to evaluate the effects of the possible changes to aircraft speeds and altitudes, as well as the influence of the wind vector on the lateral and vertical profiles, all to obtain the flight trajectory that most reduces the global flight fuel consumption.