Air Transportation 2050 - A Holistic View

The lecture introduces into the view of holistic aerospace technology research. Starting at global aviation developments various research results on operational laminar technology imapct and climate optimized aircraft design are presente

Virtual Integration Platforms (VIP) –A Concept for Integrated and Interdisciplinary Air Transportation Research and Assessment

The paper descibes a new methodology for a holistic development of air transportation concepts. The Virtual Integration Plattform (VIP) concept is based on an IT tool chain as well as human collaborative methods to deal with complex systems. As a result the definitions of future air transportation concepts for short range "Quiet and Clean", long range "Comfortable and Clean" and individual transport "Fast and Flexible" are presente

Fliegen 2050

Es wird eine Übersicht über die globalen Entwicklungen mit Einfluß auf die Luftfahrt gegeben. Im Hauptteil wird auf eine stärkere Prozessorientierung des Lufttransports eingegangen, um eine höhere Effizienz und Attraktivität zu erzielen. Im weiteren Verlauf werden absehbare innovative Technologien sowie deren Potentiale aufgezeigt

Erweiterung eines Trajektorienrechners zur Nutzung meteorologischer Daten für die Optimierung von Flugzeugtrajektorien

Das Fliegen wird maßgeblich durch die Wind- und Wettersituation entlang des Flugweges beeinflusst. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde das Trajectory Calculation Module (TCM) – ein bestehendes Werkzeug zur Simulation von Flugtrajektorien – dahingehend erweitert, dass im Zuge der Trajektoriensimulation anstelle von Standardatmosphären-Bedingungen auch reale atmosphärische Bedingungen miteinbezogen werden können. Hierfür wurden insbesondere eine Flughöhen- sowie eine Fluggeschwindigkeitsregelung integriert, die die Einhaltung typischer Flugphasenrandbedingungen auch unter von der Standardatmosphäre abweichenden meteorologischen Bedingungen gewährleisten. Die Wirkung horizontaler Winde wurde zudem durch deren Superposition mit der Fluggeschwindigkeit gegenüber der Luft erfasst. Ferner wurde für die laterale Optimierung von Flugrouten unter Windeinfluss ein Algorithmus auf Basis von Prinzipien der Optimalsteuerungstheorie entwickelt. Das zu minimierende Kostenfunktional wurde so gewählt, dass sowohl die Flugzeit als auch der Einfluss einer ortsabhängigen Straffunktion Berücksichtigung finden können. Als Anwendungsfall wurden Klimakostenfunktionen, die die Sensitivität der Klimawirkung gegenüber der Emission von Schadstoffen als Funktion des Ortes beschreiben, als Straffunktion in das Kostenfunktional der Optimierung integriert. Auf dieser Grundlage wurde anhand einer exemplarischen Flugroute untersucht, inwieweit sich die durch den Flug verursachte Klimawirkung vermindern ließe, wenn eine erhöhte Flugzeit in Kauf genommen würde

An Integrated Method for Determination of the Oswald Factor in a Multi-Fidelity Design Environment

Aircraft conceptual design often focuses on unconventional configurations like for example forward swept wings. Assessing the characteristics of these configurations usually requires the use of physic based analysis modules. This is due to the fact that for unconventional configurations no sucient database for historic based analysis modules is available. Nevertheless, physic based models require a lot of input data and their computational cost can be high. Generating input values in a trade study manually is work-intensive and error-prone. Conceptual design modules can be used to generate sucient input data for physic based models and their results can be re-integrated into the conceptual design phase. In this study a direct link between a conceptual design module and an aerodynamic design module is presented. Geometric information is generated by the conceptual design module and the physic based results, in form of the Oswald factor, are then fed back. Apart from the direct link, an equation for determination of the Oswald factor is derived via a Symbolic Regression Approach

Bewertung der Effizienz von Flugzeugen mit Hybridlaminarhaltung unter Berücksichtigung von Wolkeneinflüssen

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die operationelle und ökonomische Effizienz von Flugzeugen mit Hybridlaminarhaltung zu bewerten. Im Vordergrund steht dabei die Frage, wie kritisch die Degradation der Laminarität durch Wolkeneinflüge ist und welche Gegenmaßnahmen zur Minderung des Einsparpotenzialverlustes geeignet sind. Dazu wurden zwei Mittel-Langstreckenflugzeuge mit Hilfe von meteorologischen Atmosphärendaten des European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast hinsichtlich ihrer Effizienz untersucht. Neben der Erstellung einer globalen und auf die Luftfahrt bezogenen Wolkenklimatologie wurden vom DLR entwickelte Tools zur Trajektoriensimulation genutzt, um das reale Einsparpotenzial von Flugzeugen mit Hybridlaminarhaltung unter Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Kraftstoffplanungsstrategien zu ermitteln. Zudem wurde eine Umgebung zur Trajektorienoptimierung verwendet, um die Frage zu beantworten, inwieweit und unter welchen Bedingungen alternative laterale Streckenführungskonzepte geeignet sind, um durch die Vermeidung von Wolkendurchflügen die Laminaritätsdegradation zu vermindern und den ökonomischen Vorteil der Technologie zu maximieren

Assessment of real-time data transmission via ad-hoc communication networks in the North Atlantic oceanic airspace

Data link based real-time data transmission for air traffic services and aeronautical operational control provides for safe, efficient and timely exchange of information between aircraft and ground entities within the current air transportation system. This enables procedures and process optimization for air traffic service and airline operational control. Currently, the air transport system relies on direct line-of-sight data link in continental airspace and communication via satellite or high frequency data link in oceanic, remote or polar airspace. Future communication technology intends to additionally allow for indirect air-to-ground communication via aeronautical ad-hoc networks using aircraft as network nodes. This approach bears a high potential to increase airspace capacity and efficiency for congested airspaces with little ground infrastructure as it is the case e.g. for the North Atlantic oceanic airspace. While the assessment of operational benefits for conventional line-ofsight or satellite-based data link technologies can be based on the experience made with existing technologies, the assessment of aeronautical ad-hoc networks needs careful consideration of the particular air traffic situation as well as of the specific aeronautical communication demand. In our work we present a method to combine air traffic and connectivity simulations with an aeronautical data traffic demand model for the North Atlantic oceanic airspace. As a result, the coverage of aeronautical data traffic demand by an aeronautical adhoc network enabled by the new technology, will be estimated for various scenarios for the North Atlantic oceanic airspace. Dependencies on the equipage fraction and on the air-to-air radio range will be analyzed. Also, expected application data rates at aircraft exchanging the data communication of the airborne network with ground entities, will be assessed on a simplified basis. The results are suited to serve as a technical guidance for further scaling and definition of the underlying air-to-air data link technology

Evaluation of business travel as a potential customer field of a local AAM market

Several studies examine Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) demand focusing on commuting and airport shuttle trips at this moment. Little activities are concentrating on business travel in general nor for AAM demand in special. Business travel as a generic term for any corporate purposed transport consists of four categories: Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE). Every business traffic comes along with its own character which has to be considered when modelling. After the transport generation based on their travel purpose and location, a discrete choice model evaluates different modes of transport to determine the market share for AAM. As business travel is expected to have a greater value of time, the modal share of AAM is anticipated be higher compared to more cost-sensitive use cases such as commuting. On the other hand, however, the market size of the overall business traffic could weaken this group of potential AAM passengers. In the field of this poorly investigated demand share, this approach presents a possibility of modeling local business traffic. Furthermore, this study assumes an adopted AAM mode of transport for this passenger group, which helps to understand the characteristics of future AAM demand

An aeronautical data communication demand model for the North Atlantic oceanic airspace

Information exchange via aeronautical data communication is of increasing importance for the communication between pilots and air traffic control, providing the basis for surveillance of aircraft in oceanic or remote airspaces, as well as enabling the communication between an airlines’ fleet and its operational control. The aeronautical data communication that is being transmitted via data link encompasses, among others, surveillance-related aircraft position updates, clearances for flight path change requests, maintenance-related status reports, estimated arrival times and weather information in accordance with the required performance, that is set by technical standards. Aeronautical data communication events are driven by an aircraft’s flight phase, the current airspace or may occur in a randomized manner throughout the flight. As the usage of aeronautical data communication is expected to grow in future, ample data link technologies are being evaluated and developed. The usability and operational value of new data link technologies for aeronautical applications can be evaluated by applying suitable models of the respective data link communication pattern combined with operational simulations. Current models for aeronautical data communication demand support the design and evaluation of direct aircraft-to-ground communication networks. The geographical location of the data communication demand is secondary for these models, since coverage areas can be defined, where direct communication links are available. New data link technologies offer the opportunity of direct data transfer between aircraft and forwarding of messages from sending aircraft to a ground entity via ad-hoc communication networks between aircraft. This is of special interest for the North Atlantic oceanic airspace, an airspace with high traffic density and little ground infrastructure, where communication currently relies mostly on satellite-based systems. For these airborne ad-hoc networks the definition of coverage areas around ground or space-based entities is not possible. To assess the new data link technology a model for aeronautical data link communication demand is needed, that accounts for operationally derived communication events such as handover procedures at boundaries of oceanic control areas or status reports at route-specific waypoints, which cause an accumulation in certain geographical regions that pose a challenge to the dynamic connectivity coverage of aeronautical ad-hoc networks. Addressing this issue, we present a new modelling approach for air traffic service communication that considers the operational context of the simulated airspace and provides a geospatial data communication demand distribution, which is derived from air traffic management procedures, airspace geometries and events inherent to each flight path. The air traffic service communication is then validated based on 2019 air traffic and performance monitoring data provided by ICAO supplemented by an existing model for communication related to airline operational control. In a next step, the communication demand per area in the North Atlantic Oceanic airspace is being assessed. The aeronautical data traffic model shows deviations of less than one message per aircraft and airspace when compared to recorded data traffic from 2019 for two key services in the most frequented North Atlantic oceanic control areas. Therefore, it is assumed to be suitable for the evaluation of network-based data link technology and operational impact assessments

Investigation on the effects of weather patterns on strategic climate impact mitigation measures: a data-based approach

Aviation plays a crucial role in global transportation, but its environmental impact, particularly its contribution to climate change, remains a significant concern. Besides CO2-emissions from aircraft, recent research has highlighted the substantial impact of non-CO2 effects. These effects, encompassing various atmospheric phenomena, demonstrate a complex relationship with time, location of emission, and prevailing atmospheric conditions along aircraft trajectories. This research aims to develop a database of climate sensitivity to discern the factors influencing these aviation emission effects, thereby enabling the determination of operational measures on fleet level. The research focuses on key meteorological parameters and algorithmic climate change functions (aCCFs), considering a multitude of atmospheric phenomena, which are known to significantly influence climate impact of aviation [Castino et al, 2022]. By gathering extensive meteorological data from the European Centre for medium weather range forecast (ECMWF), and processing it by means of the CLIMaCCF library [Dietmüller et. al 2022] we can derive patterns and associations to identify areas particularly sensitive to non-CO2 emissions and their effects by applying algorithmic climate change functions that allow for a fast computation of aviation related temperature response to specific emission species. This data-driven approach allows us to understand the intricate interplay between aircraft emissions, atmospheric conditions, and the resulting climate forcing in terms of average temperature response (ATR). The development of this meteorological database provides a valuable resource for assessing the environmental implications of air traffic operations. This study is focused on enabling climate mitigation through operational changes on a large traffic scenario compared to previous studies [Lührs et al 2021] to derive relevant strategic mitigation measures in ATM. This data-based approach is a conceptual study to identify the potential of using aCCFs for the determination of strategic measures in flight planning to mitigate climate impact focused on the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC)