Scheduling of Arrival Aircraft Based on Minimum Fuel Burn Descents

The main goal of this research is to investigate minimum fuel descent trajectories for various types of aircraft and consider appropriate arrival sequencing based on the acquired results. First, the validity of a point mass model to find optimized descent trajectories in order to obtain minimal fuel consumption is confirmed. Through single aircraft numerical simulations, the principle “higher for longer” is verified and the limitation induced by the 3 degree maximum value of the flight path angle is observed. An extension to multiple aircraft simulation generates results, which can be used effectively to determine the most advantageous order of arrival considering air traffic constraints and predefined flight time and time separation.