Boeing Says Trials of "Tailored Arrivals" Show Significant Fuel Savings

Boeing says current operational trials of its Tailored Arrivals concept are indicating that "significant amounts" of fuel can be saved from their implementation.

According to Boeing, these on-going trials at San Francisco - like previous ones in Australia and in The Netherlands during the past two years - show fuel savings from 400 pounds (180 kilograms or approximately 60 gallons) to 800 pounds (360 kilograms or approximately 120 gallons) per flight.

"The implication of these studies is that, when fully implemented, Tailored Arrivals could save airlines $100,000 per year in fuel costs per aircraft for flights into major airports," said Rob Mead, the lead engineer for advanced ATM air/ground communications at Boeing Phantom Works.

Boeing is conducting the evaluation at San Francisco under a joint program with NASA's Ames Research Center.  United Airlines, the FAA's Oakland Air-Route Traffic Control Center and Northern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, Sensis Corporation, Lockheed-Martin, and San Francisco International Airport authorities, are also involved in the project.

The first set of trials at San Francisco included 17 flights with United B-777-200s from August 17 to September 6.  A second set of trials at the same airport, with 777s and 747s, is scheduled to start later this month.

As the participating aircraft approach their start-of-descent point, they receive complete horizontal and vertical clearances all the way to their arrival runways. To accomplish this, the FAA's new Ocean 21 system, with its FANS (future air navigation system)-1/A integrated datalink communication, is used to receive the aircraft's downlinked position, intent and weather data.  These data, in turn, are used to establish a four-dimensional descent profile, which is then uplinked back to the approaching aircraft's FMS (flight management system).

Once the crew accepts the profile, the FMS flies the more continuous trajectory, instead of using a traditional vectored, step-down approach, with its concurrent voice instructions.

An important objective of the San Francisco trials is to validate capabilities of NASA's EDA (en-route descent adviser), which computes optimal descent paths through complex traffic constraints and airspace restrictions.  Specifically, the trial managers are examining the EDA's ability to predict trajectories and make adjustments to flight profiles and arrival times, and to coordinate and execute these trajectories across multiple air traffic control sectors and facilities.

Boeing sees this concept as a significant step toward achieving the goals of the U.S. Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NGATS) and the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program.  10-03-2006.

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