D-KULT

Duration: 1 June 2022 - 31 May 2025

The D-KULT project (demonstrator climate and environmentally friendly air transport) aims to provide evidence of the feasibility of eco-efficient flight trajectories, considering non-CO2 emissions in European and especially in German airspace. Flights should be planned in such a way, that their trajectories are optimized with regard to reduced climate impact in a suitable defined climate metric.

Within the design process of climate and environmentally friendly trajectories, CO2 and non-CO2 emissions as well as noise and operating costs should be minimized at the same time. This can be depicted in a mathematical optimization problem with conflicting goals. In addition, a number of constraints as well as regulatory restrictions and airspace as well as airport capacities must be observed in a most-realistic context. The intelligent balancing of different targets in the mathematical sense is a complex task that is to be solved in this project. The Institute of Air Traffic contributes its expertise in the creation of traffic scenarios as well as trajectory optimization and simulation of climate and environmentally friendly trajectories. Furthermore, evaluation and benchmarking procedures are being developed in cooperation with the project partners.

An essential project goal is also the demonstration of the feasibility of climate-friendly flight trajectories through extensive simulations and their possible application in operational use.

D-KULT is a LuFo Climate joint project with a large number of project partners: DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH, DWD Deutscher Wetterdienst, Jeppesen GmbH, PACE GmbH, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Lufthansa Systems GmbH. Associated partners are Airbus Operations GmbH, European Air Transport Leipzig GmbH (DHL), Federal Association of the German Aviation Industry (BDL) and EUROCONTROL MUAC.