PhD Position Operational Analysis and Assessment of Aircraft Concepts

New aircraft concepts and propulsion technologies are being developed to reduce aviation emissions. But how do these new aircraft change the world of air traffic management?

Research and industry are increasingly investing in new aircraft concepts (e.g., powered by batteries, hydrogen, and other alternative energy sources) that promise to significantly reduce aviation's climate impact. These aircraft come with fundamentally different performance characteristics such as different operating speeds, climb and descent angles and range. It's still an open question what happens when these aircraft share the airspace with conventional traffic, and what that would mean for air traffic control and safety.

This is exactly what this PhD project aims to answer!

The primary focus of the research will be to quantify how mixing aircraft with strongly differing performance characteristics affects safety, efficiency and capacity, and to develop the metrics and models needed to make those effects measurable. This can be approached through empirical analysis of large-scale simulations, through new (semi-analytical) models that predict the impact of introducing these vehicle types, or a combination of the two.

Because the tools to do this do not yet exist, the open-source air traffic simulator Blue Sky will be extended into a scenario generator and assessment framework, which will form part of a larger simulation environment that evaluates the aviation system of the future.

The PhD should consider:

• Characterise how new aircraft types differ in performance from current traffic, and what this means for separation and procedure design.
• Quantify the relation between safety, capacity and efficiency under a mixed future fleet.
• Identify how we should design procedures for such a heterogenous mix of aircraft types.
• Assess what this implies for ATM innovations such as trajectory prediction, separation automation, collision avoidance, and Trajectory-Based Operations.

• Extend Blue Sky with the scenario generation and assessment capability the above requires.
• Make these tools usable by other researchers and policymakers, in line with the lab's open-science approach.
• Facilitate future expansion to include other domain models (e.g. emissions, noise) in collaboration with other researchers.

This PhD position is part of the Dutch Aviation Systems Analysis Lab (DASAL), a flagship collaboration between TU Delft and Royal NLR, funded through the Dutch national growth fund under the 'Luchtvaart in Transitie' programme. DASAL serves as a living lab for developing integrated models and simulations to support innovation throughout the Dutch aviation sector and public policy. Within this unique ecosystem, you will join a diverse and interdisciplinary team of twelve PhD candidates and three postdocs from across the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, collaborating closely with experts at NLR and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to analyse the complex interactions between sustainability, economics, and societal impact in aviation.

The PhD candidate will be based at the Operations & Environment section of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, and will actively collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and PhD candidates from the same Faculty, as well as researchers from the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), towards the creation of the Dutch Aviation System Analysis Laboratory.

• MSc Degree in Aerospac.e Engineering or Aeronautical Engineering, or an MSc Degree in Mechanical Engineering, (Applied) Mathematics or Computer Science with an affinity for aviation and Air Traffic Management.
• Strong background in physics and mathematics, ideally knowledge in Air Traffic Management.
• Strong background in coding, preferably Python.
• Ability to learn independently and passion for research.
• Strong communication skills in English.
• Team player, open to discussion and constructive criticism.
• Previous involvement in scientific research is a plus.

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