Patent Document ID: 9564056
Application ID: 14844892
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method of optimizing an operational flight path for a particular aircraft using nonlinear programming, the method comprising: receiving a mathematical model representation of performance characteristics for a particular aircraft and an engine combination, the mathematical model being applicable to at least one prescribed operating scenario and a representation of performance characteristics for the particular aircraft and engine combination including at least one of engine degradation characteristics, fuel burn as a function of flight variables, a flight dynamics model, and combinations thereof; performing a projection based model order reduction on the mathematical model representation for the particular aircraft and an engine combination; eliminating, based on the projected model, fast dynamics components of the mathematical model representation; determining a reduced order model, as a differential algebraic equation, wherein algebraic equations replace the fast dynamics; setting a flight path angle and a throttle lever angle as a control to minimize fuel consumption for the modeled aircraft and engine combination; defining a climb terminal cost as a function of cruise altitude and an airspeed; discretizing equations of motion for the modeled aircraft and engine combination and formulating optimization equations as a nonlinear programming problem; determining an optimal open loop control that minimizes fuel consumption for the modeled aircraft and engine combination to climb to a prescribed cruise altitude and airspeed corresponding to the at least one prescribed operating scenario; generating a flight path based on the determined optimal open loop control; and navigating, based on the generated flight path, the particular aircraft and an engine combination in one of the prescribed operating scenarios.