New altitude optimisation algorithm for the flight management system CMA-9000 improvement on the A310 and L-1011 aircraft

The current flight management system (FMS), CMA-9000, from CMC Electronics-Esterline, only optimises the vertical flight profile in terms of the speed of the aircraft. This article defines a methodology that optimises the speeds and altitudes for the vertical profile, obtaining a trajectory that reduces the global flight cost. The performance database (PDB) provided by CMC Electronics-Esterline is presently used on aircraft such as the Lockheed L-1011, the Airbus A310 and the Sukhoi Superjet 100 Russian regional jet. The PDB is used as the reference to design different trajectory optimisation algorithms to obtain the altitude where the aircraft fuel efficiency is the best. These algorithms are compared with the part-task trainer (PTT), simulator that represents the FMS CMA-9000, supplied by CMC Electronics-Esterline as well. To validate the results, the FlightSIM® software is used, which considers a complete aircraft aerodynamic model for its simulations, giving accurate results and very close to reality.