An Integrated Path Planning Tool for Civil Supersonic Flight Operations
Jiajie Wen, Holger Pfaender, Dimitri N. Mavris · 2024
Trajectory planning for supersonic flight is a task that requires multidisciplinary knowledge. The authors identified three major components required for such path planning tool: graph search algorithm, sonic boom carpet estimation, and aircraft mission analysis. The graph search algorithm performs basic path planning, sonic boom carpet estimation capability ensures the trajectories satisfy en-route noise regulations, and aircraft mission analysis makes sure that the trajectory is feasible in terms of fuel burn. Having such a tool is crucial for understanding flights with more complex geography in between the origin-destination pairs. To heighten the perspective, a robust flight routing tool is also useful for evaluating the operational feasibility of civil supersonic aircraft in its potential service network, especially during early stages of aircraft design (for example, when specifying design requirements in terms of cruise Mach number or design range).