Measuring Systemwide Impacts of New Aircraft on the Environment

Many efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of aviation, like NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project, place high importance on reducing fuel burn, nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions, and noise of future aircraft. However, the environmental and economic impact of a new aircraft is not solely a function of the aircraft’s performance but also of how airlines use new aircraft along with other existing aircraft to satisfy the passenger demand for air transportation. In this work, an optimization problem finds the optimal allocation of existing and future aircraft to routes representing commercial air transportation within or to/from the United States to measure various fleet-level metrics. Examining fleet-level environmental metrics helps assess how aircraft meeting NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project goals could impact fleet-level environmental goals established by the International Air Transport Association. The goal set forth by the International Air Transport Association examined in this paper is to reduce to...