Fuel-Efficient Safe and Secure Formation Flying in Commercial Air Traffic: Procedures, Sensor Fusion, and Communication Strategies

Kurzfassung

Civil aviation has a significant impact on climate change, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from this sector is a critical goal. One promising approach to mitigating emissions is the use of wake vortex uplift in formation flying. Initial tests by test pilots have demonstrated the general feasibility of this maneuver. However, for the execution of formation flying, the current safety separation distances between aircraft, as defined by ICAO, must be temporarily suspended. The current separation distances are designed for collision avoidance and specifically to mitigate risks associated with wake turbulence, which can pose significant dangers to aircraft, crew, and passengers. To integrate formation flying into routine civil aviation operations, new procedures are required. These procedures must ensure the efficient utilization of wake vortex effects in formation flying while maintaining current safety standards. Currently, no such procedures exist. We propose a six-phase procedure to address the absence of such protocols and identify key challenges that must be overcome to enable the safe and efficient use of wake vortices in formation flying. The proposed procedure requires only minimal modifications to existing ICAO regulations, making it feasible for rapid integration into current air traffic management systems. Our solution involves several key components: sharing and negotiating adjusted flight plans, utilizing and fusing multiple types of sensors during the flight, and sharing the data collected by these sensors. For effective communication of flight plans, a high-throughput air-to-ground datalink is necessary. Additionally, for using and real-time sharing sensor data, a secure, low-latency air-to-air data link between formation partners is required, a technology that is currently unavailable. We define specific requirements for these datalink systems at various stages of the proposed procedure using heuristic values to guide the design of the communication infrastructure. By combining the proposed formation flying phases, sensor fusion strategies, and the necessary data link requirements, we present a novel framework for integrating formation flying into civil aviation operations.