Approach trajectory generation using Bezier curves

Curved approaches are recently gaining importance in research due to economic and ecologic reasons since modern navigation aids facilitate this approach type. The mathematical expression of these approaches is thereby of special interest as continuous differentiability is especially important in this flight phase. This paper presents a method to intersect between straight legs using Bezier curves which are suitable to comply with relevant criteria. Both, the boundary conditions as well as position constraints are inherently fulfilled. Moreover, properties on the higher order derivatives can be assessed when interpreting them as subsequent Bezier curves themselves which is used for the parameter selection. Finally, an illustrative example shows a curved approach designed with this method.