Background
Research has shown that air transportation has detrimental effects on the environment due to the emissions of CO2, NOx and noise. In order to reduce the impact of the air transportation industry, the REsearch on a CRuiser Enabled Air Transport Environment (RECREATE) project proposes a new air transport paradigm in which cruiser-feeder operations are utilized. These operations entail that,
1) large aircraft (cruisers) fly fixed routes and rendezvous with smaller aircraft (feeders) that transfer passengers, fuel and other goods (figure 1).
2) long-haul passenger cruisers are refueled by tanker aircraft in-flight (figure 2).
The research effort presented herein is targeted at the latter cruiser-feeder concept, i.e., Air-to-Air (AAR) refueling.
The answers to those questions …
Other aspect emerges
Main question
Fig. 1- Example of very large cruiser with smaller feeders
What is the Cruiser - Feeder concept?
A Cruiser-Feeder concept implies that an aircraft (Cruiser) transport passengers (or cargo) for the largest part of a journey. It also implies a midair contact with another aircraft, the Feeder. Basically, the contact between Cruiser and Feeder can be done in two ways:
1) No transfer of Supplies.
2) Transfer of Supplies.
Figure 3 shows three different concepts of Cruiser – Feeder that are described below:
1) A concept without transfer of supplies. The feeder is “parked” on the Cruiser.
2) A concept where the feeders transfer supplies to the Cruiser and then return to where they departed from.
3) The case of Air to Air Refueling where the Cruiser is intercepted by a feeder half-way (in this case).
Air to Air Refueling (AAR)
The feasibility and usefulness of AAR has long been proven in military operations. However, there is no similar experience in passenger aircraft operations. There are some differences between AAR in military and civil domain.
The development of the AAR concept for passenger aircraft entails 2 major design aspects:
1)AAR mission (network) design
2)Aircraft design (cruiser and feeder)
Operations is the aspect that gives rise to several know-how and know-what questions pertaining to optimized AAR in passenger aircrafts operations
PhD Candidate: Sayyed Hamid Hosseini Department: C&O/AWEP Section: Air Transport and Operations/Flight Performance and Propulsion Supervisor: Dr. ir. H.G. Visser Dr. ir. G. La Rocca Promoter: Prof. dr. R. Curran
Start date: 28-10-2012 Funding: FP7
Aero
space
Engin
eering
Fig. 2- Example of air to air refueling
Fig. 3- Network for one transport cycle for different Cruiser-Feeder concepts.
How many types of tanker aircrafts
should be in operations?
How big the tanker fleet
size should be?
How many tanker bases are needed and where should they be located?
Where should the rendezvous of tankers and cruisers take
place?
How should, for given cruiser
flight schedules, the tanker flights be
assigned to the cruisers?
Reveal the need of
designing new types of aircrafts
Directly influence
the selection of the design parameters within the available
aircraft design space.
Optimum operational
concept
Certain aircraft performances
Certain operational
concept
Assumed aircraft
characteristic
might demand
is derived based on
How can the analysis and optimization of the mission and
aircraft design be wired together?
How the operational parameters and variables in AAR influence the aircraft design variables, and vice versa
Aircraft design space
Operation design space
Operational costs
Operational safety
“Operational cost” and “operational safety” are two main concerns in AAR for passenger aircraft that
make it different from the military domain.
A Multi-disciplinary Design Optimization
framework for integrated aircraft and
mission design of a cruiser-feeder concept