Advanced aircraft performance modeling for ATM: Analysis of BADA model capabilities

This paper provides an analysis of the BADA aircraft performance model capabilities and addresses the BADA model ability to provide accurate modeling of aircraft performances over the complete flight envelope for a number of aircraft types and different ways in which an aircraft can be operated during the flight. The focus of the paper is the support of complex aircraft operations by BADA. A short description of the two existing BADA families and their main characteristics is given. The complex flight instructions and operating regimes - economy climb, cruise and descent based on cost index, maximum range cruise, long range cruise, optimum altitude and maximum endurance cruise - identified as key features in support to optimized flight execution are discussed. The optimization procedures and equations in which they derive are presented and the ability of the BADA model to support these flight operations is demonstrated. It is shown that BADA 4 can be successfully used with complex instructions and operating regimes, whereas the use of BADA 3 is limited. Finally, the results of a validation experiment dedicated to BADA thrust models are presented.