First Trial of a New Flight Procedure that Reduces Fuel Burn

[mpenguin1]

The partners of an Airbus-led project called CRISTAL ITP (In-trail Procedure) successfully carried out the world’s first in-flight demonstration of a flexible new procedure for oceanic airspace that saves fuel and reduces emissions during cruise

The new in-trail procedure will enable aircraft to more easily perform altitude changes during cruise which can significantly improve flight efficiency, reducing fuel burn and emissions. When an aircraft is not at its optimal altitude, aircraft fuel consumption and emissions are increased. As fuel is burned, the aircraft weight is reduced, and the aircraft then needs to climb to maintain its optimum cruise efficiency. Additionally, favourable winds can be found at higher or lower altitudes.

http://www.boarding.no/art.asp?id=31111

[TFaudree_ERAU]

What is the status of implementation of ADS-B in oceanic airspace? What good does this experiment do if the requirement for aircraft to be equipped with ADS-B in oceanic airspace is nowhere on the horizon? I'm not saying that it isn't on the horizon, as I really have no idea how far along this technology is, and when we might see it being used and/or mandated for oceanic ops.

[UPSpilot]

Good idea, but lots of bugs still to be worked out. UPS is the leader in ADS-B development and even though we have self merging and sequencing certified, we still have lots of problems with losing lock on the target a/c.

[Tiger815]

Originally Posted by TFaudree_ERAU

What is the status of implementation of ADS-B in oceanic airspace? What good does this experiment do if the requirement for aircraft to be equipped with ADS-B in oceanic airspace is nowhere on the horizon? I'm not saying that it isn't on the horizon, as I really have no idea how far along this technology is, and when we might see it being used and/or mandated for oceanic ops.

To my knowledge there is no plan for ADS-B in Oceanic Airpace. ADS-B requires ground stations and there still isn't a place to put them in the ocean. That said, the Gulf of Mexico is one of the first phases of the ADS-B implementation, because there are oil platforms to put the ground stations on, and there are a crapload of helos flying around out there in a non radar environment, that have been begging for ADS-B for years. Airlines flying to points south will benefit from that, assuming they are equipped.

What is being worked on (at least in the US) to optimize Oceanic airpace, is ground based automation to allow pilots to request their optimal altitude, via datalink. The automation would then check for conflicts and approve or deny the request (I think it suggests alternatives if the request is not available). The first demos are planned for next month, in US Oceanic Airspace. Its a step toward Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) which is another building block of NextGen.