Large aircraft takeoff path optimization out of terrain challenging airports

Abnormal Engine Failure Flight Path optimization has a strong influence on the commercial payload that Airlines are permitted to carry on any revenue flight. Current practice is to manually pre-determine these flight paths, which leads in most cases to a conservative, suboptimal result, especially for airports surrounded by high terrain. The purpose of this paper is to present ongoing research that utilizes novel methods inspired by the recent high quality research into UAV path planning. Optimal Flight Paths allowing the highest payload are computed using a mixture of graph based Path Planning algorithms, and a search space determination based on the aircrafts compromised climb capability. Results are presented which offer possible solutions to Engine Failure Flight Path optimization.