1 Introduction

During the major part of any flight, the aircraft will be flying at its cruise speed and
altitude. As it approaches the destination, the aircraft will need to descend from this
altitude to land on the runway at the destination airfield. In order to have a stabilized
approach, the speed of the aircraft will also have to be reduced during the descent, to an
appropriate landing speed. So, the aircraft needs to lose both potential and kinetic
energy, which is done while it flies down the descent path. To properly manage the
dissipation of the energy, correct planning prior to the top-of-descent (TOD) is required.
Such planning is a routine task for the flight crew, however distractions and/or delays in
the descent will result in the aircraft approaching the runway with too much energy. At
this point, the flight crew will have two choices: either abandon the approach and try
again, or try to land the aircraft with too much energy. The safest way would be to
always turn around, dissipate the excess energy and try another landing approach,
however this will disrupt the Air Traffic Controller (ATC)’s schedule, which can cause
several delays. For this reason, the flight crew might choose to go with the second
option, however this poses a threat to the safety of the flight, as an unstabilized approach
can cause crash landings or runway overruns.

Managing the energy dissipation of an aircraft is referred to as energy management,

which involves the monitoring the state of the aircraft’s speed and altitude and keeping
them within the limits of said target profiles. The ideal descent profile allows the total
energy of the aircraft to be gradually dissipated, from the cruise speed and altitude to
those required at the start of the runway. For various reasons, including ATC
constraints, flight crews will often have to deviate from their flight plans and descent
profiles. Due to tactical complications such as weather or unplanned traffic, the ATC
may end up requesting combinations of speed and altitudes which the flight crew did not
plan for. This will interfere with the initially planned descent, and the flight crews will
need to assess their situation and in a short amount of time, take the necessary action to
recover any energy upsets created by the ATC’s interference so that the aircraft can land
safely.
1.1 Descent Planning
1.31.1 Flight Management System
The Flight Management System (FMS) is perhaps one of the most important
components of modern aircraft’s avionics [1]. It is a specialised computer system, which
automates a different number of in-flight tasks, such as flight planning operations,
optimizing routes for fuel and time, providing flight plan display and airplane control
[2]. In handling these tasks, the workload on the flight crew is reduced significantly,
allowing them to focus on other duties. In the past, the work carried out by the FMS
was performed by additional crew members, namely the flight engineers and navigators.
This led to the development of the system back in 1978, with the first FMS introduced,
in 1982, on the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 [3]. Such system had a 16-bit processor with
clock rates of only 24Mhz, 128KB of RAM and a hard disk providing an extra 100KB
of storage [4].

Flight Management Systems have evolved a number of times since the original system
was developed, where nowadays, a 64-bit Power PC microprocessor with a clock rate
of 800Mhz is used, coupled with 120MB of RAM and 50MB of flash memory. Figure
1.1Figure 1.1 shows a block diagram of the different components making up a modern
FMS.

Figure 1.1: Block Diagram of a Flight Management System

At the heart of any FMS there is the Flight Management and Guidance Computer
(FMGC). Its management part performs the navigation and management of navigation
radios, management of the flight routing, prediction and optimization of aircraft’s
performance, as well as, manages the displays that supply information to the pilots. On
the other hand, FMGC’s guidance part handles the autopilot, flight director and auto
thrust commands [5].

There are two ways that the pilot can use to access the FGMC, either through the
Multimedia Control and Display Unit (MCDU) or the Flight Control Unit (FCU). Figure
1.2Figure 1.2 shows a typical FCU that can be found on an Airbus A320.

Figure 1.2: Flight Control Unit

The FCU is considered to be the short-term or tactical interface with the FMGC. This
is due to the fact that this interface is typically used during flight, when the pilot needs
to introduce autopilot adjustments to the current part of the route. Such changes are
normally required to avoid bad weather conditions, which would have been unforeseen
during the planning of the flight, as well as, to follow specific instructions issued by the
Air Traffic Controller (ATC). The FCU allows the pilot to engage and disengage the
autopilot (A/P), Flight Director (FD) and the Auto Thrust (A/THR) commands. It also
allows the pilots to manually change the flight parameters, including the speed, heading
and altitude set-points.
 Figure 1.3: Multimedia Control & Display Unit

Figure 1.3Figure 1.3 shows a typical MCDU, which can be found on board an Airbus
A320 aircraft. It is considered to be the long-term or strategic interface between the crew
and the FMGC, as it allows the pilots to input and modify the flight plans. During pre-
flight procedures, flight information [6] such as:

 The airports of departure and arrival.

 Flight number.
 Fuel weight.
 Desired performance of the aircraft which includes climb and descent speeds,
cruise speed and bank angles used to execute turn manoeuvres.
 Flight Plan.

The flight plan is either manually by the pilots or via an ACARS datalink with the
airline’s dispatch centre, where the best route the aircraft should take is optimised [7].
Such plan normally contains information, such as departure runway and procedures,
waypoints along the route, airways that will be used, as well as, the arrival procedures
and runway. Each FMS contain a navigation database, which is defined via the ARINC
424 Standard [8], and is typically updated every 28 days. Such database contains
information on waypoints, airways, Radio Navigation Aids, airports, runways, Standard
Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Terminal Arrivals (STARs). Thus, the
MCDU uses the information from this database to complete the flight plan and generates
the necessary route, with the required speed and altitude restrictions of each waypoint.
A number of additional waypoints are generated, so as to follow the specified airways,
such as SIDs and STARs would have been defined in the flight plan.

The navigation component of the FMS uses a combination of INS, GPS and RadNavs
in order to accurately obtain the latitude, longitude, altitude and speed of the aircraft.
The Inertial Navigation System (INS) uses ring laser gyroscopes in order to measure
changes in the roll, pitch and yaw of the aircraft and accelerometers for measuring the
linear velocities [9]. Airliners typically use a combination of three independent INS to
obtain a triple mixed IRS position, which is more accurate than the individual modules
and also acts as a safety feature in case one should fail. The Global Positioning System
(GPS) uses a number of low orbiting satellites to obtain the position of the aircraft
through trilateration [10]. Finally, Radio Navigation (RadNav) uses radio frequency
broadcasted from a number of ground stations to calculate the position of the aircraft
[11]. The information obtained from the above systems are then used to attain the best
estimate of the position of the aircraft by utilising Kalman Filtering techniques.

On the aircraft, two MCDUs are installed, typically located at the sides of the forward
pedestal as shown in Figure 1.4Figure 1.4, one for the pilot and another for the co-pilot. Formatted: Font: 12 pt

Each MCDU is used to control an FMGC which are synchronized together. A single Commented [BZ1]: Not clear

FCU is located on the glare-shield, where both the crew members can reach and make
necessary adjustments.

Figure 1.4: Cockpit Layout

1.2 Descent Planning
As the aircraft start to approach its final destination, the flight crew will start to plan the
descent phase of the flight. Such planning will include choosing the top-of-descent,
descent speeds and decelerations, and a lateral flight plan which will be providing
sufficient track distance for the descents and decelerations. As this phase of is the most
challenging during a flight, the flight management system provides some guidance on
how the descent should be planned. Figure 1.1 shows an example of a descent profile
which can be generated using a FMS which is found on most modern-day aircraft.

Figure 1.51: Stepped descent profile of an aircraft

Initially, the aircraft will be flying at its cruising altitude and constant Mach speed.
When the TOD point is reached, the FMS will command the aircraft to start descending
at a constant speed. Above the Tropopause altitude of 36,089 ft, the constant Mach will
result in a constant calibrated airspeed (CAS), as the temperature of the air remains
constant. However, below this altitude the temperature will start to increase, and the
constant Mach will cause an increasing CAS. Once the crossover altitude is reached,
the speed control will be changed from a constant Mach to a constant CAS so that over-
speeding is avoided. As the aircraft travels closer to its destination, altitude restrictions
such as “At or below” and “At” can be imposed. Once the aircraft has reached specific
altitudes, speed constraints must also be met, such as the 250 kts requirement at 10,000
ft. Finally, at 3000 ft the aircraft will decelerate to the required final approach speed,
which will ready the aircraft for landing.
The descent profiles used by most FMS involve stepped approaches, which are not fuel
efficient or environmentally friendly. In this descent plan, the aircraft will be kept flying
at low altitudes for a long period of time, which will cause it to burn more fuel and
generate more pollution. Due to the low altitude, the aircraft will also generate more
noise pollution for the areas surrounding the airfield.

1.3 Continuous Descents and Future ATM operations

Another approach which the aircraft can use during the descent phase of the flight is a
Continuous Descent Approach (CDA), similar to the one shown in Figure 1.2. A
continuous descent profile allows the aircraft to fly further in cruise, and once the
descent is commenced, the aircraft flies at a constant descent speed (often at idle trust)
towards the destination airfield.

Figure 1.62: CDA (solid) and conventional approach (dashed)

Managing the energy of the aircraft performing a CDA will be a greater challenge for
the flight crew. This is because as the descent was initiated much closer to the
destination than a stepped descent, there will be less track distance available for the
aircraft to recover any deviations from the original flight plan.

The implementation of continuous descents forms part of NextGen [12] and the Single
European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) [13] programs, which are the major initiatives
aiming to revolutionaries air traffic management in USA and Europe. Such programs
will significantly increase the overall airspace capacity, efficiency, security and safety
of aviation while reducing the flight’s impact on the environment. These two programs
aim to achieve this by moving away from the conventional clearance based control of
today, to a Trajectory-Based Operation (TBO). Such approaches provide automation
capabilities to manage air traffic by adjusting the Four-Dimensional Trajectory (4DT)
of the aircraft, where time is now integrated into the 3D aircraft trajectory. This concept
restricts the aircraft to meet a very accurate time of arrival at various designated points
on the flight plan, which are used to efficiently direct the traffic at different parts of the
flight.

The introduction of TBO is expected to reduce the tactical alterations of the flight plans,
which will in turn reduce the risk of inadequate energy during descents. However,
unexpected weather, emergencies, diversions and any other such operational
considerations, can cause the 4DT which was defined at the beginning of the flight to be
revised as the flight progresses to accommodate for the deviations. Such adjustments
can involve changes to the airspeed when minor adjustments are required, with path
adjustments introduced when these are not sufficient. So, even with the use of TBO, the
need for energy management tools is still there, as the risk of inadequate energy
management during tactical manoeuvres which are not included in the planned descent
profile still persists.
1.4 Objectives and thesis outline
In the work done by Zammit in [14], an Energy Recovery Advisory System (ERAS) was
designed to help manage the energy during the descent phase of the flight of large
transport aircraft. The ERAS uses an energy monitoring function, to continuously asses
the state of the aircraft’s energy as the aircraft is descending towards the destination.
The role of this function is to predict the state of the aircraft’s energy state at a future
target along the descent path, and identify an abnormal descent, which happens when
the aircraft’s energy deviates beyond a chosen threshold from the predictions. The
system will then issue a recovery profile, with adjustments for the vertical and lateral
(horizontal) dimensions. In the vertical dimension, a combination of changes to the:

 Autopilot mode
 Descent airspeed
 Speed brake position
 Remaining track miles to fix

are done to recover the energy back to acceptable levels. For these adjustments to have
the desired effect, a specific amount of track distance will have to be flown by the
aircraft. In most of the scenarios, the distance to the target point on the flight plan when
the ERAS is aiming to recapture the required energy, will be different than that which is
required. So, path extensions or reductions will have to be introduced in the lateral
dimension, in order for the necessary distance to the target point to be obtained.

The focus of this thesis will be on the energy recovery solution in the lateral dimension,
specifically on how the required track extensions or reductions are produced, with the
main objectives summarised as follows:

1. To identify and develop a path planning system which is capable of modify

the route on the active flight plan to obtain the required track extension or
reductions.
2. To develop a system which will allow the extended path to be adjusted as it is
being flown, to accommodate for any changes required due to the wind
conditions.
2 References
[1] J. Villarroel, “Flight Management System Desciption,” in An Optimal Control
Framework for Flight Management Systems, no. February, 2015, pp. 2–4.

[2] M. . Liu, “Flight Management System,” in Dynamic Simulator of a Flight

Management System for Commercial Jetliner - Developent, Integration and
Application, Quebec: Concordia Universty, 2002, pp. 10–13.

[3] S. Miller, “Contribution of Flight Systems to Navigation,” Boeing AERO, pp. 20–
28, 2009.

[4] D. Avery, “The Evolution of Management Systems,” IEEE Softw., vol. 28, no. 1,
pp. 11–13, 2010.

[5] Airbus, “Auoto Flight General,” in A320 Flight Crew Operating Manual, 2005,
pp. 1–10.

[6] Thales, “FMS General Description,” in The new Flight Management Pilot’s
Guide, Airbus, pp. 1–86.

[7] S. Altus, “Effective Flight Plans Can Help Airlines Economize,” Boeing AERO,
no. 35, pp. 27–30, 2009.

[8] EuroControl, “ARINC424 Specification.” [Online]. Available:

http://www.eurocontrol.int/articles/arinc424-specification. [Accessed: 03-Nov-
2017].

[9] O. J. Woodman, “An introduction to inertial navigation,” Cambridge, 2007.

[10] E. Kaplan and C. Hegarty, Understanding GPS: principles and applications.

Artech house, 2005.

[11] J. Manuel and F. D. E. Moura, “NARROW-BAND PASSIVE SYSTEMS

THEORY WITH APPUCATIONS TO POSITIONING AND NAVIGATION,”
1976.

[12] Anon, “Concept of Operations for the Next Generation Air Transport System,”
2011.

[13] Anon, “Sesar Master Plan,” 2008.

[14] B. Zammit, An Energy Descent Recovery Advisor for Large Transport Aircraft.
University of Malta, 2015.