The proposed research will determine the optimum relative locations for any pair of aircraft to fly in an extended formation and achieve fuel savings of up to 10%, saving the U.S. airline industry billions of dollars in aviation fuel costs

Okolo, Wendy A.

NASA Technical Reports Server

Where Should It Fly?
Wendy A. Okolo, Ph.D. Code TI
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In 2017, U.S. airlines consumed
approximately 17.3 billion gallons
of fuel at $1.69 a gallon.
Formation flight can reduce fuel
usage by up to 10% for future and
EXISTING aircraft!
Location of sweet spot depends on the
sizes of the aircraft in the formation.
Online control schemes to find the
sweet spot are not fuel efficient.
Determine relationship between sweet
spot and relative aircraft size for
implementation by commercial airliners.
For any pair of aircraft, this relationship
will define where the trail should fly
relative to the lead.
• Aircraft simulation model 
- MATLAB/Simulink
• Scaling methodology for
aircraft
• Empirical relationship
between aircraft size and
sweet spot location
• Validation with formation
flight results in literature
(flight tests and
simulation)
FTE: 0.5
Procurement: $24K
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/urban-expeditions/transportation/green-aviation1/
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20180004249 2019-08-31T15:17:24+00:00Z


Where Should it Fly?

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