Flight planning: node‐based trajectory prediction and turbulence avoidance

ABSTRACT To tackle the ever‐growing demand for air travel, the aviation industry has expressed great interest in assessing the impact weather uncertainty has on flight planning. However, due to the opacity of commercial flight planning systems, there has been an absence of a suitable research platform which weather centres could use to test and convey advancements in numerical weather prediction (NWP) to benefit operational flight planning. In this paper, a simple yet versatile trajectory prediction system that aims to bridge the gap between NWP centres and the industry is proposed. The proposed system is based on A*, a node‐based pathfinding approach which is simple to implement and configured to suit any requirements. Unlike analytical solutions, research findings from the proposed system can be readily implemented in commercial flight planning systems. An example of how clear air turbulence could have been considered before take‐off and avoided is presented. The aviation industry has expressed interest in assessing the impact weather uncertainty has on flight planning. Due to the opacity of commercial flight planning systems, there has been an absence of a suitable research platform which weather centres could use and convey advancements in numerical weather prediction to benefit operational flight planning. A simple yet versatile trajectory prediction system is proposed. Unlike analytical solutions, research findings from the proposed system can be readily implemented in commercial flight planning systems.