Assessment of potential formation flight benefits based on European flight plan data

Abstract

In this paper potential two-aircraft formation candidates will be identified by comparing the point profiles of all scheduled flights in the European airspace on one specific day. The identification of these formation candidates is performed by calculating the amount of time the flights are planned to fly in close vicinity to each other. The formation candidates will be adapted in order to achieve feasible vertical formation flight profiles and valid formation missions. In a next step, the candidates will be examined by a detailed formation trajectory calculation based on a total energy model. In order to calculate the different mission parameters of the formation the effects of the wake vortices on the following aircraft are included in the trajectory calculation by an aerodynamic model. To assess the potential fuel saving benefit, the corre-sponding solo missions for all aircraft participating in the formation are being calculated and put in comparison. The for-mation geometries of the potential formations as well as different parameters such as aircraft types, origins, destinations and durations will be analyzed. It will be shown, that by considering planned point profile data, a considerable amount of opportunities for formation flight exist. Furthermore, based on the calculations the fuel saving benefits will be quantified and compared to the solo flights and it will be shown, that substantial fuel saving benefits compared to flying without formation can be anticipated.