Niclas Dzikus

Potential for Fuel Reduction through Electric Taxiing

In this study the potential for fuel savings through electric taxiing is investigated. Therefore simple models are used to investigate the difference of fuel consumption during the ground phase and the flight phase of a gate-to-gate mission. By using these models the fuel savings can be estimated, which are the sum of the fuel saved during ground operations and the additional fuel required during the flight phase due to an increased Operating Empty Weight. The models are applied to actual data of flights conducted by domestic carriers within the United States National Airspace System. Results show that electric taxiing offers the potential for fuel savings depending on the flight mission, i.e. the ratio of time an aircraft spends on ground and the flight distance. A parametric analysis is conducted to investigate the sensitivity of the results for different constraints. The study concludes with a comparison of the concept compared to other operational or technological measures aiming to reduce fuel consumption on ground.

The Benefit of Innovative Taxi Concepts: The Impact of Airport Size, Fleet Mix and Traffic Growth

Increasing environmental awareness of the public, tightening of legislation regarding environment protection, along with a steady growth of traffic and rising oil prices are the main drivers the aviation industry has to deal with. Moreover, congested maneuvering areas and the impossibility to expand challenge the large airports in particular. Therefore, great effort has to be spent by airports and airlines to optimize ground operations under the given conditions. The taxi phase of a mission came into focus, recently, as it offers a great potential of fuel and emissions reduction. This paper discusses the impact of innovative taxi concepts, such as Electric Taxi, TaxiBot, Single Engine Taxi and operational improvements by the use of surface managers (SMAN). The goal is to estimate the potential of these four concepts under the operational conditions of selected airports. The forecasted growth of air traffic as well as expected aircraft fleet changes over the next years at the respective airports will also be taken into account.

Assessment of a Convective Weather Nowcasting and Tracking Algorithm Based on Delay Reduction Potential at Munich Airport (Part I)

This work presents the first part of an economic assessment of Rad-TRAM, which detects, tracks and predicts up to one hour heavy precipitation cells by using weather radar data. Rad-TRAM has been developed at DLR and will be assessed by analyzing delay data at Munich Airport during convective weather events. Delay reduction potential underlying operational adaptation through advanced weather information serves as assessment metric to quantify the economic benefit of the algorithm. Advanced weather information refers to the tracking, nowcasting and visualization of severe areas within thunderstorms. Delay data is evaluated during convective impact within the boundaries of terminal airspace of Munich airport and coverage areas within this airspace are considered regarding delay behavior. Arrival traffic is affected by mean individual delay rates of up to 21 minutes whereas departure traffic is more evenly impacted during convective impact. A delay analysis of time periods before and after convective impact reveals that there is potential for delay reduction, if advanced weather information is provided in these periods as well as in the period of convective activity.

Market-driven Derivation of Field Performance Requirements for Conceptual Aircraft Design

An approach to derive a take-off field length for the initial specification of a new aircraft design is introduced in this paper. Based on a passenger demand forecast the runway lengths of the origin and destination airports are analyzed. The physical lengths of the runways are corrected by airports’ elevation and reference temperatures. The approach to derive airport reference temperatures on air transport system level is described in more detail. For an exemplary range of flight distances and the corresponding market, runway lengths are determined and corrected. Consequently the percentage of passenger demand can be described as a function of runway lengths. The example illustrates that airports’ elevation and reference temperature significantly affect the percentage of passenger demand that can be accommodated by an aircraft design for a given take-off field length.

AN AIRPORT ASSESSMENT APPROACH IN THE CONCEPTUAL DESING STAGE

For the assessment of airports or airport technologies an integrated approach will be introduced in terms of a life-cycle cost-benefit analysis. It provides the capability to identify and interpret the economic advantages and disadvantages of technical, operational, economic or social changes to a pre-designed reference system. The System stability can be investigated by a stress test, which Shows the sensitivity of the performance of the Overall Airport system by parameter variations. The net present value (NPV) is applied as key performance indicator in the economic evaluation, calculated by balancing the costs, revenues and cash flows. Especially in the dynamic capital budgeting the NPV gives a good interpretation of the economic impact of time-varying income and expenditure, which are driven mainly by operational, technical or economic variables. Among others, the developed application, named as CBAirport, supports airport decision maker, optimizer, developer or manufacturer of Airport systems to bring their output to its highest efficiency.

Assessing the Potential Benefit of Future Technologies to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Airport Operations

Environmental performance of the air transportation system plays an important role to ensure the anticipated growth in air traffic. This is particularly the case for the environmental impact of airports on a local level. Beside the technical capacity, environmental capacity might noticeably constrain airports in the future. In addition to aircraft noise and its impact on the community, emissions of airport operations and the corresponding impact on local air quality have to be considered, given the negative e�ects of constrained infrastructure and increasing demand for air tra�c on overall performance (e.g. increasing delay). In this paper technologies to reduce environmental impact of airport operations are introduced together with a modeling approach to assess their future impact on emission reduction. Based on the large amount of emissions during the taxi phases we focus on approaches to reduce taxi emissions. The potential fuel savings and emission reductions are exemplary computed for a hub airport for the investigation period 2010-2030.