Estimation of Aircraft Performance Metrics Based on Flight Trajectory Data

Air traffic operational efficiency has critical influence on energy conservation and pollutants reduction. The lack of models and tools makes it difficult to numerically calculate and evaluate the effect of aviation new technologies on green operation. In this research, the methods for the estimation of fuel consumption and pollutant emission based on recorded track data are studied. Firstly, aircraft performance parameters matching models are constructed to calculate fuel flow, aircraft mass, engine thrust, Mach number and aerodynamic forces under given track data. Meanwhile, aircraft pollutant emission models are established for calculating fuel consumption and pollutant emission in different flight phases. Furthermore, we developed software within Visual Studio environment to compute fuel consumption and pollutants data based on recorded Radar track data and recorded track data from radar control simulators. The results show that controllers personal skills may have significant influence on fuel saving and emission reduction. The constructed models and developed software in this paper can not only be used for quantitatively analyzing the impact of air traffic new technologies on civil aviation’s fuel conservation and pollutants reduction, but also can be used for evaluating the efficiency of different air traffic controller groups and helping air traffic controllers to make a better decision, thus obtain improved flight safety and increased airspace capability.