Wake Encounter Flight Control Assistance Based on Forward-Looking Measurement Processing

Abstract

Weather dependent delays, incidents and even accidents play an important role in aircraft operation. Any airplane is subject to air motion. Thus, turbulence is an important parameter in aeronautics. The phenomena which are summarized as gusts and turbulence strongly affect the passenger comfort and the safety of aircraft. Especially the turbulence caused by the wake of other aircraft can cause undesired motions mainly roll and vertical aircraft and support the pilot to carry out his control task. With the aid of specific controllers such vortices can be safely encountered even if the required control power temporarily exceeds the aivailable capacity. Aircraft equipped with such a controller will be less affected by unforeseen wake vortex encounters or even will be able to follow another aircraft closer than authorized by the current separation distances without any compromise concerning safety. A very promising concept for wake vortex disturbance alleviation is the fee-forward disturbance compensation. The application of such an approach requires the accurate determination of the flow disturbance to calculate the necessary counter measures in terms of required control activities. Thus, the disturbance flow determination plays an important role and needs to be investigated thoroughly. Modern LIDAR technology has the potential to measure the flow filed in front of the aircraft and to provide the required disturbance information in advance before it affects the aircraft. The final goal of the DLR approach is the development of an Integrated Ride and Loads Improvement System (IRLIS) which is able to cope with the whole frequency range of atmospheric flow disturbances relevant for aircraft operation. The presented paper will summarize the status of the work performed during the last years and the current activities.