Contrail suppression
AssigneesAirbus Operations GmbH, Airbus Defence and Space GmbH
InventorsMartin LEE, Anthony DENNISS, Matthew STUTTARD, Martin AGNEW
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of contrail suppression. Data is generated with a sensing system onboard a first aircraft during a flight of the first aircraft. The data includes atmospheric information indicative of an atmospheric condition and/or contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the first aircraft. A second aircraft is operated to perform one or more contrail suppression measures on a basis of the data.
Claims20
A method of contrail suppression comprising:
- generating data with a sensing system onboard a first aircraft during a flight of the first aircraft, wherein the data comprises atmospheric information indicative of an atmospheric condition and/or contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the first aircraft;
- and
- operating a second aircraft to perform one or more contrail suppression measures on a basis of the data.
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- receiving data from a first aircraft during a flight of the first aircraft, wherein the data comprises atmospheric information indicative of an atmospheric condition and/or contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the first aircraft;
- and
- calculating a flight route for a second aircraft on a basis of the data, wherein the flight route is calculated to avoid ice super saturated regions of air space detected by the first aircraft and/or calculated to avoid air space in which contrails were generated by the first aircraft.
A method of fuelling a second aircraft, the method comprising:
- receiving data from a first aircraft during a flight of the first aircraft, wherein the data comprises atmospheric information indicative of an atmospheric condition and/or contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the first aircraft;
- calculating a flight route for the second aircraft on a basis of the data;
- calculating a risk of contrail generation by the second aircraft for the calculated flight route;
- calculating a fuel load on a basis of the risk of contrail generation;
- loading the second aircraft with a first fuel;
- and
- loading the second aircraft with an amount of a second fuel which is less prone to causing contrails than the first fuel, wherein the amount of the second fuel is determined on a basis of the calculated fuel load.
A method of loading a second aircraft with a contrail suppression fuel-additive, the method comprising:
- receiving data from a first aircraft during a flight of the first aircraft, wherein the data comprises atmospheric information indicative of an atmospheric condition and/or contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the first aircraft;
- calculating a flight route for the second aircraft on a basis of the data;
- calculating a risk of contrail generation by the second aircraft for the calculated flight route;
- calculating an additive load on a basis of the risk of contrail generation;
- and
- loading the second aircraft with an amount of a contrail suppression fuel-additive, wherein the amount of the contrail suppression fuel-additive is determined based on the additive load.
An aircraft comprising:
- a sensing system configured to generate data including contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the aircraft;
- and
- a transmitter configured to transmit the data during flight of the aircraft.
A flight planning tool configured to receive data from a first aircraft, wherein the data comprises atmospheric information indicative of an atmospheric condition and/or contrail information indicative of a presence or absence of contrails generated by the first aircraft, and wherein the flight planning tool is configured to calculate a flight route for a second aircraft on a basis of the data, wherein the flight route is calculated to avoid ice super saturated regions detected by the first aircraft and/or calculated to avoid air space in which contrails have been generated by the first aircraft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.