Towards Automatic Control of Fuel-Saving Formation Flight

Kurzfassung

Similar to a flock of birds, aircraft can save energy by flying in formation within the updraft section near the wake vortex of the preceding aircraft. The required tracking precision can hardly be achieved by manual control by the pilot thus the necessity of an automatic flight control system is apparent. A dedicated formation flight controller was developed and successfully demonstrated in a full-flight A320-simulator with pilots in the loop.