Arrival time control in a continuous descent operation (CDO) and its application to arrival traffic control are discussed. Through numerical simulations, the feasibility of the arrival time extension and reduction while maintaining the idle thrust during the continuous descent trajectory is presented. The extensible and reducible time of a CDO trajectory are also numerically analyzed. They are uniquely determined by the aircraft speed, altitude and distance from the runway. The CDO trajectory that potentially has the maximum extensible and reducible time is also proposed, which is expected to cancel the deviation of arrival time from that scheduled. A set of numerical traffic simulations proves the effectiveness of the proposed traffic control strategy. It is concluded that CDO using the proposed traffic control strategy is able to achieve delay-free air traffic with enhanced arrival time predictability. A noteworthy numerical result is also obtained showing that a slower trajectory for a larger reducible time can achieve a faster arrival time on average than the fastest trajectory with no reducible time.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.