A Design Methodology for Commercial Aircraft Formation Flight Plans with Minimal Fuel Consumption

This article deals with the problem of fuel saving in the design of flight plans for a formation flight connecting a given set of departure and arrival airports. Fuel savings occur when aircraft form proper flight formations during the cruise phase to take advantage of the induced drag reduction of the trailing aircraft. A procedure is provided to list all possible flight formation options for a plan with any number of flights. The option with the lowest fuel consumption is determined using a low-fidelity model of the fuel consumption of an aircraft flying at a constant speed and altitude, in a no-wind condition. The model exhibits the same accuracy in terms of ground tracks of the flights and fuel consumption calculation as compared to high-fidelity models that integrate nonlinear aircraft dynamics. Thus, a significant reduction in computational effort is achieved, while maintaining the same effectiveness.