Aircraft Performance & Design

MACE 20400

Module 4: Mission Analysis

Topic 1a: Mission Profiles

Dr Nicholas Bojdo
nicholas.bojdo@manchester.ac.uk
1. Introduction
Descent Approach Procedures

• En-route Descent Procedure

• Multi-Stage En-route Descent

• Glide Slope

• Alternative Descent Approaches

 Multi-stage En-route Descent

• The aircraft starts descending from its cruise altitude well ahead of its destination (> 100 nm)

• The process is automated: the flight computer will indicate the distance to the airfield and the

en-route descent i.e. distance and time to landing based on  speed, altitude, winds.

• The en-route descent from the Final Cruise Altitude (FCA) is done in stages.

Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 TMA

Stage 1
 En-route Descent Procedure

Stage 1 Aircraft descends at constant Mach number to an altitude where

it reaches a target CAS (or IAS)  CAS is independent of
height useful in descent.
TOD = Top Of Descent.
Stage 2

Constant CAS is maintained to an altitude of 10000 feet (FL-100,

Stage 3
3,048m)

Stage 4 Deceleration at constant altitude to reach a new target CAS

TMA Descent at constant CAS to 1,500 feet

Below 1500 feet, aircraft is in terminal manoeuvre area (TMA)

 Runway Orientation

• Orientation given in tens of degrees.

• Numbers e.g. 27-09 denote TO/LDG in either

direction (depends on prevailing wind).

• Left/Centre/Right used for multiple runways.

• May change due to magnetic drift, e.g.

Stansted July 2009: 05-23  04-22.

 Glide Slope

• Most airport ATCs specify aircraft to approach the runway, in the

terminal manoeuvre area, to be a gradient of 3 degrees. This is

glide
slope
known as the glide slope. It is accompanied by a vertical localiser. indicator

• Staying on the glide slope assures a safe vertical speed on landing,

centreline
and ease of safe separation distance between approaching aircraft. localiser

• Pilots aim to ‘intercept’ this using a glide slope indicator.

• If conditions are normal, glide slope is indicated by row of lights on

runway which appear as visual horizontal line.

• If visibility is low, aircraft conduct an Instrument Approach, in which

a radio-navigation system provides horizontal and vertical guidance

by transmitting radio signals from runway to aircraft.

 Final Approach

• We have seen both in climb and descent the requirement to maintain constant calibrated airspeed.

• We have also seen that there exists an optimum airspeed to achieve maximum rate of climb.
• In final approach, to minimise the landing distance it is
25

preferable to be flying as slow as possible, although a safety

20

minimum of 1.3 times the stall speed is imposed.

15

Altitude (km)
• Maintaining this speed in the descent is made difficult by the
10

fact that the stall true airspeed changes with altitude. CL_Clea
5 n
CL_TO
1.3 𝑉 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙 Approach airspeed CL_LDG
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Stall Speed, (m/s)

𝑉 𝑇𝐷
3° 𝑉 𝑒𝑛𝑑