No CrossRef data available.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2010
This paper presents some preliminary conclusions about navigation requirements for supersonic aircraft, in particular those which relate to management of the aircraft along its vertical flight path.
The conclusions are based on an evaluation of some 200 computer-simulated flights of the mach 2 Concorde. The simulation contained models of real-world atmospheres for polar, temperate and tropical latitudes taken from actual upper-air observations and integrated over selected great circle routes used in the study.
The computer programme was designed to permit three kinds of flight schedule: operation according to the manufacturer's recommended mach-altitude profile, operation with respect to a set of arbitrary A.T.C. profiles, and operation along an optimum-energy profile. The results permit us to suggest objectively, performance capabilities, airspace requirements, and limiting conditions which are essential factors in specifying the vertical requirements.