Engine Thrust Model Determination from Large Operational Flight Data Base

Abstract

Different engine thrust models are developed from operational flight data with limited apriori knowledge as part of a novel process for aircraft flight performance model determination. The given big data problem is solved by application of fundamental engineering knowledge and a specific data evaluation strategy. The resulting smart data approach is fundamentally different from existing artificial intelligence methods to solve such big data problems. A linear, a local-linear and a complex nonlinear thrust model are determined on the example of a given large database of operational flights with Airbus A320neo aircraft. Even with limited information about the actual engine thrust from the available data, the resulting models allow to (well) predict the engine thrust characteristics within the required flight envelope. Finally, the characteristics of the different thrust model implementations and results are discussed.