抄録
In an effort to realize efficient arrival operations, one of the challenges directs at realizing energy-saving arrivals is Continuous Descent Operation (CDO), with which the arrival aircraft descends to the airport continuously using near-idling thrust. As a potential solution to achieve both time-spacing performance and fuel reduction while conducting CDO in arrival traffic, this paper suggests applying ``Fixed-flight Path Angle (FPA) descent,'' which the arrival aircraft continuously descents to the assigned runway following the fixed vertical path angles. The feasibility of the FPA descent was evaluated via a series of B777-200 full-flight simulator experiments, eleven trials in total. With the use of airline's flight simulator, the pilot's operability and tracking performance following the assigned FPA vertical path were assessed. The effectiveness of the combination of FPA descent and speed control is clarified via a comparison with conventional arrival operations. These simulation results show the applicability of the proposed FPA descent and suggest its future contributions.
