Guidance of Flight Path in TMA During Landing - A Design Study

Abstract

Air traffic has grown over the last few decades and is increasing further to a state where many airports and especially big hubs are reaching their limits of capacity. Hence many research activities were initiated to come up with more efficient and safe flight operations including Flight Path Boundary approach for controlling Time-of-Arrival in the terminal area. The design studies presented in this paper investigate a simplified representation of an intermediate flight path in the Vertical Situation Display for meeting the Time-of-Arrival requirements. A guidance law for maintaining constant EAS during descent has been evolved to adjust the thrust based on variation of air data measurements. Simulation results for typical case studies are presented to validate the approach. Possible areas for further extension are highlighted.