No label defined (Q3972970)

[ For the entire collection see Zbl 0719.00020. ] This paper presents an overview of the optimization problems having interest for the flight of an aircraft in a windshear. Three problems are studied: (P1) for take-off trajectories, the minimization of the maximum deviation of the absolute path inclination from a reference value; here, relative path inclination recovery is required at the final point; (P2) for abort landing trajectories, the minimization of the maximum drop of altitude from a reference value; here, the transition from descending flight to ascending flight is required; (P3) for penetration landing trajectories, the minimization of a performance index measuring the deviation of the flight trajectory from the nominal trajectory; here, the touchdown path inclination is specified and the values of the touchdown distance and the touchdown velocity must be in a specified range. Problems (P1) and (P2) are Chebyshev problems of optimal control, and Problem (P3) is a Bolza problem of optimal control. These problems are solved by means of the sequential gradient-restoration algorithm for optimal control problems. The optimal trajectories have the following properties, which are considerably different from those of trajectories computed in the absence of windshear: (a) in take-off, the path inclination of the optimal trajectory decreases as the windshear intensity increases; the point of minimum velocity occurs at the end of the shear; (b) in abort landing, the optimal trajectory includes three branches: a descending flight branch, followed by a nearly horizontal flight branch, followed by an ascending flight branch, after the aircraft has passed through the shear region; the maximum altitude drop increases with the windshear intensity and the initial altitude; the point of minimum velocity occurs at the end of the shear; (c) in penetration landing, the optimal trajectory deviates somewhat from the nominal trajectory; the deviation increases as the windshear intensity increases the point of minimum velocity occurs at the end of the shear. Numerical results show that the optimal trajectories for take-off and abort landing are superior to comparison trajectories, such as the constant pitch trajectory and the maximum angle of attack trajectory. Also, the optimal trajectory for penetration landing is superior to comparison trajectories, such as the autoland trajectory and the fixed control trajectory.