We quantify the fuel and cost benefits of applying extended formation flight to commercial airline operations. Central to this study is the development of a bi-level, mixed-integer real formation flight optimization framework. The framework has two main components: 1) a continuous-domain aircraft mission performance optimization and 2) an integer optimization component that selects the best combination of optimized missions to form a formation flight schedule. The mission performance reflects the effects of rolled-up wakes, formation heterogeneity, and formation-induced compressibility. The results show that an airline can use formation flight to reduce fuel burn by 5.8% or direct operating cost by 2.0% in a long-haul international schedule. The savings increase to 7.7% in fuel or 2.6% in cost for a large-scale, transatlantic airline alliance schedule. These results include the effects of a conservative fuel reserve for formation flight. Sensitivity studies show that a modest reduction in the cruise Mach number may be sufficient to manage the impact of formation-induced compressibility effects on system-level formation flight performance. We demonstrate that the potential savings from extended formation flight (an operational improvement using existing aircraft) can approach those claimed for advanced vehicle technologies and unconventional configurations.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Aircraft Route Optimization for Formation Flight


    Contributors:
    Xu, Jia (author) / Andrew Ning, S. (author) / Bower, Geoffrey (author) / Kroo, Ilan (author)

    Published in:

    Journal of Aircraft ; 51 , 2 ; 490-501


    Publication date :

    2014-03-11


    Size :

    12 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English





    Aircraft Route Optimization for Heterogeneous Formation Flight

    Xu, J. / Ning, S. / Bower, G. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2012


    Aircraft Route Optimization for Heterogeneous Formation Flight

    Xu, Jia / Ning, Simeon / Bower, Geoffery et al. | AIAA | 2012


    Route optimization of the aircraft flight

    Averkiev, N. F. / Vlasov, S. A. / Salov, V. V. et al. | Springer Verlag | 2016


    Route optimization of the aircraft flight

    Averkiev, N. F. / Vlasov, S. A. / Salov, V. V. et al. | Online Contents | 2016