Optimizing Flight Trajectories Using Simulated Annealing

Aircrafts go through different phases from takeoff to landing. The trajectories of aircrafts result in different fuel consumption during flight. The cruise phase generally consumes the most amount of fuel and therefore contributes the most to the overall cost of the flight. Many environmental factors such as wind conditions can further impact the fuel consumption. For instance, tailwinds where winds are in the same direction as the aircraft and headwinds where winds are in opposing direction affect fuel consumption differently. This research seeks to optimize flight trajectories of aircrafts under different wind conditions during the cruise phase to minimize fuel consumption for aircrafts. Previous research used Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find alternate paths under wind conditions and showed an average cost reduction of 0.5% when compared to geodesic paths (shortest paths). This research explores the use of Simulated Annealing (SA) to find alternate paths that minimize fuel consumption of aircrafts. The SA results show an average cost reduction of 1.5% and 2.5% in cases of tailwinds and headwinds, respectively, when compared to the results of geodesic paths. This research can be extended to account for environmental and operational uncertainties for different phases of flight to further reduce the overall fuel consumption of aircrafts.