Generation of emergency trajectories based on aircraft trajectory prediction

Abstract

We present an automated emergency trajectory generator to compute the best emergency trajectory for a given landing site. A given emergency 2-dimensional (2D) path (i.e., route) is used as input for a trajectory predictor (TP), which computes a trajectory by taking into account the current aircraft performance and weather. The set of vertical profiles considered in the TP has been designed in order to cover the widest possible range of emergency situations. Moreover, the aircraft intents considered in these profiles are chosen by taking into account the operational requirements of the air traffic operation system and the input of the flight crew. A set of representative profiles has been tested during the study, to verify the result of the proposed algorithm and its computing time. Furthermore, the effect of the distance to go on the resulting trajectories has been also analyzed. This concept is expected to be part of an advanced flight management system on-board function to help the pilot take efficient and effective decisions in emergency situations and adverse conditions.