Noise-Sensitive Final Approach Trajectory Optimization for Runway-Independent Aircraft

Runway-independent aircraft have been proposed to increase passenger throughput at crowded urban airports via the use of vertiports or stub runways. Simultaneous noninterfering (SNI) traffic procedures will minimize impact on existing fixed-wing traffic. This paper introduces a SNI trajectory generation algorithm that treats existing fixed-wing traffic corridors as impenetrable obstacles and optimizes a multiple parameter cost function that includes ground noise, fuel, and time. Flight envelope limits are represented as search-space constraints, and computational efficiency is gained through an empirical noise model and uniform-cost search strategy. Example final approach trajectories illustrate the effects of airspace obstacle placement and varied optimization function weights. † Graduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering ‡ Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering