Dr. William Knecht, Maneuver Space Technologies, Pocasset, Oklahoma

“Reducing Upper Atmospheric Fuel Burn Through Direct Routing Air Traffic Technology”

(Category: Aviation)

Energy use and climate change are global concerns. Aircraft exacerbate both by converting fuel to greenhouse gasses in the upper atmosphere precisely where they exert disproportionately large effects on climate. Worldwide, aircraft produce over 600 million tons of CO2 per year, with passenger traffic projected to increase by about 5% per year. The most straightforward way to save fuel and reduce emissions is to fly shortest-distance, direct routes. However, commercial aircraft follow segmented jetways, effectively adding up to 12% distance to each flight.

For this project, Dr. Knecht will test 4CAS, a 4-dimensional collision avoidance system based on aircraft heading, speed, altitude, and available maneuver time. 4CAS makes optimal maneuvers graphically prominent to the air traffic controller or pilot, despite dense air traffic. The information representation can be extended to include weather, terrain, and special-use airspace, and is compatible with either manual or automatic collision avoidance systems (auto-CAS). The goal of this project is to change the way maneuver information is represented to enable safe, efficient, easy, and rapid aircraft maneuvers during direct routing. Reducing aviation fuel consumption, flight duration, and engine operation time benefits not only the global environment, but passengers and airlines as well.

This aviation grant is sponsored by Richard and Susan Kane.