For safer and greener skies
Direct emissions from aviation account for about 3 % of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions. The aviation sector has not succeeded in offsetting the increase in global traffic, despite constant technological progress and high research and development investments. To deal with aircraft-related emissions and environmental uneasiness, the EU-funded ADFLICO (Adaptive flight control for advanced aircraft concepts) project looked at adaptive flight control as an enabling technology for cutting-edge aircraft concepts. The focus was mainly on fault-tolerant and environmentally friendly aircraft. Project partners used a nonlinear aircraft model to develop a method for calculating online the trim and manoeuvrability envelopes of aircraft. They then designed an algorithm to estimate these envelope limits, devised probabilistic methods to calculate the trim envelope, and performed an analysis to determine the corresponding manoeuvrability limitations. Outcomes will help to boost flight crew situational awareness. The ADFLICO team applied and assessed the algorithm for estimating the safe manoeuvring envelope. It evaluated flight envelope limits indicated on flight display instruments in order to study the crew's responsiveness to an aeroplane's energy state. Commercial airline crews flew several challenging approach and landing scenarios. Results show that the additional display features can potentially enhance situational awareness, reduce workload, contribute to carefree flying and avoid loss of control. Using the flight envelope information as a basis, an efficient safe flight envelope protection method was developed to keep a closed loop aircraft with manual control laws within safe envelope restrictions. The developed technologies will enable crews to more accurately identify, process and understand the critical elements of information about what is happening by supplying feedback to the pilot. This should contribute to supporting safe aircraft procedures in expected and unforeseen conditions. ADFLICO hopes to one day make travel safer for both crews and passengers while reducing the burden of global air traffic on the environment.
Keywords
Flight crews, ADFLICO, adaptive flight control, situational awareness, flight envelope
