ANALYSES ON A CIVIL AIR TO AIR REFUELING NETWORK IN A TRAFFIC SIMULATION

Abstract

The project REsearch on a CRuiser Enabled Air Transport Environment (RECREATE) is about the introduction and airworthiness of cruiser-feeder operations for civil aircraft. Cruiser-feeder operations are investigated as a promising pioneering idea for the air transport of the future. The top level objective of the project is to demonstrate on a preliminary design level that cruiser-feeder operations (as a concept to reduce fuel burn and CO2 emission levels) can be shown to comply with the airworthiness requirements for civil aircraft. (The 42-month RECREATE project research receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 284741. This publication reflects only the authors' views. The European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.) Air-to-air refuelling operations are an example of this concept. Currently Air-to-air refuelling operations are primary used to extend range of aircrafts in military operation. However some research has been done in the past to estimate fuel saving capabilities of air-to-air refuelling in both military and civil operations. Most of these estimations give highly positive results on the fuel saving capabilities. Nevertheless these results mainly based on a small number of optimised cases. As part of the primary design in the RECREATE project this paper will discuss air-to-air refuelling operations in a traffic scenario based on Eurocontrol-Data containing one day of traffic over Europe. The effects of different design parameters for the participating aircrafts and the underling air to air refuelling network will be the centre of discussion in this paper.