Flight operation and airframe design for tradeoff between cost and environmental impact

Abstract

Besides the influence of aircraft noise and emissions on the local air quality, the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the global climate achieves more and more attention recently. The engine is very important for the noise and emission reductions, whereas the airframe and flight conditions have great effect on these items as well. This paper aims to study the effect of the airframe parameters and the flight conditions on the emissions during standardized landing and takeoff cycle, the total emitted greenhouse gas, the noise during approach, and the cost with the multidisciplinary analysis framework. The analysis displays that the cruise and the climb stages have the main effect on global warming potential with about 95%, and reducing the cruise altitude may result in a decrease of the global warming impact but an increase of direct operating cost. The flap with fewer gaps is better to be employed for the noise reduction. Meanwhile, a larger wing area is needed to make up for a loss of aerodynamic effect. The steeper approach could reduce both of the noise during approach and the emissions during landing and takeoff-cycle. Two types of configuration are achieved after optimization.