Development of an advanced continuous descent concept based on a 737 simulator

It is well known that noise restrictions impact airport approach and departure procedures at many airports worldwide. The research described here presents an advanced continuous descent approach (CDA) concept using current and future capabilities of flight management systems (FMS) to allow idle thrust (low noise) descent from about 8000 ft to 2000 ft, yielding significant reductions in aircraft noise on the local airport community. The advances in flight management technology described here would allow tailoring of the final descent path to include aircraft type, predicted winds, initial altitude, vehicle weight, time of arrival, and initial/final descent speeds. This research is based on a high fidelity simulation of a 737-700 aircraft. Conclusions and techniques based on this aircraft would have to be adjusted or re-tuned before they are applied to other aircraft types to correctly match thrust/drag characteristics.