System and method for determining aircraft operational parameters and enhancing aircraft operation

摘要

A method for identifying variations in aircraft operational parameters includes processing 66 a four-dimensional (4D) aircraft trajectory for a flight along a route and determining an aircraft intent corresponding to the flight along the defined route 68 based at least in part on an aircraft performance model from a trajectory predictor. The intent includes multiple segments and corresponding intent parameters. In addition, the method includes adjusting the intent parameters such that a computed 4D trajectory substantially corresponds to the 4D aircraft trajectory 70, determining a computed operational parameter 72 based at least in part on the computed trajectory and the aircraft performance model and identifying 74 variations between the computed operational parameter and a corresponding measured operational parameter. The operational parameter may comprise a fuel usage, a flight cost or a flight time. The method may comprise comparing 75 the variations to a threshold to identify aircraft inefficiencies. Also claimed is a method, comprising determining an aircraft intent corresponding to a flight along a route, determining a computed 4D trajectory based on the intent, determining a computed operational parameter based on the computed parameter and iteratively adjusting the intent to provide a more desirable value of the computed parameter.